Death To Us All
by Randomuso
Summary: *CLOSED*689th Hunger Games, here we come, it's yet another SUBMIT A TRIBUTE fic.!  You might be the one to get all the way through! May the odds be ever in your favour!  -Rated T to be safe, it is the Hunger Games after all-
1. Chapter 1

Ok, here we go! You guys all know the drill, you message me the form below, and I will stick your tribute in a dangerous environment we all love!

Alrighty, specifics for me:

I'm not going to do the pre-game stuff for all of them, I will pick the best of your options and see what fits, so, feel free to specify which one you want your character to star in.

If you want me to do your tribute justice, please be as detailed as possible in your application, but do leave me some room for creativity.

I'll see how fast the entries come in, but I will, at some stage, have a cut off date, and I'll pick my favourites.

No relation whatsoever to the original characters, it's a completely new Hunger Games!

So, please message me this application form!

Name:

Gender:

Age:

District:

Career: (yes or no)

Allies: (yes or no, feel free to specify numbers, or even districts, whatever you want!)

Token:

Personality/Bio.:

Strengths:

Weaknesses:

Quotes you'd like me to stick in:

Reaped or volunteered:

If volunteered, why?:

Weapon:

Prudent info about family and friends:

Do you want me to put a romance:

Do you mind if I put you in a romance:

Which pre-games scene would you like your tribute to star in? (Training, chariot ride reaping, backstage stuff I've forgotten, stylist stuff, etc.)

Out of curiosity, tell me your favourite character from the original series:


	2. Tribute Update

Alrighty, here's the list so far!

District One:

Male:

Female:

District Two:

Male:

Female: Shine Spencer (skgirl4ever)

District Three:

Male:

Female: *Reserved*

District Four:

Male:

Female: Marina Arden (GlimmerIcewood)

District Five:

Male:

Female: Megan Gallagher (Roxy43)

District Six:

Male:

Female:

District Seven:

Male:

Female:

District Eight:

Male:

Female:

District Nine:

Male:

Female:

District Ten:

Male:

Female:

District Eleven:

Male: Cedric Roberts (Lupine Eclipse)

Female: Flower paws (Peaks Island)

District Twelve:

Male:

Female:

Keep those entries coming, and if you'll allow me to be picky, could I please get some more guys? I've only got poor Cedric by himself at the moment…


	3. Tribute Update No2

Here's another quick update for everyone!

Please note, I'm still keen on getting a few more guys, but it's a bit more balanced now.

District One:

Male: Satin Calliope (Serpent's Ballet)

Female:

District Two:

Male:

Female: Shine Spencer (skgirl4ever)

District Three:

Male: *Reserved*

Female: *Reserved*

District Four:

Male:

Female: Marina Arden (GlimmerIcewood)

District Five:

Male:

Female: Megan Gallagher (Roxy43)

District Six:

Male:

Female:

District Seven:

Male:

Female: Katrina Oakson (Darkkystar25)

District Eight:

Male: Tristan Hooker (Percabethlover112)

Female: Ellie Cage

District Nine:

Male:

Female:

District Ten:

Male:

Female:

District Eleven:

Male: Cedric Roberts (Lupine Eclipse)

Female: Flower paws (Peaks Island)

District Twelve:

Male:

Female:

Keep it coming!


	4. Final Tribute List

Ok, here's the final listing! No more entries! Story starts next chapter!

District One:

Male: Satin Calliope (Serpent's Ballet)

Female:

District Two:

Male:

Female: Shine Spencer (skgirl4ever)

District Three:

Male: *Reserved*

Female: *Reserved*

District Four:

Male:

Female: Marina Arden (GlimmerIcewood)

District Five:

Male:

Female: Megan Gallagher (Roxy43)

District Six:

Male:

Female:

District Seven:

Male:

Female: Katrina Oakson (Darkkystar25)

District Eight:

Male: Tristan Hooker (Percabethlover112)

Female: Ellie Cage

District Nine:

Male: Rye Sutherland

Female: Elodia Mayim

District Ten:

Male: Datwin Princeward

Female:

District Eleven:

Male: Cedric Roberts (Lupine Eclipse)

Female: Flower paws (Peaks Island)

District Twelve:

Male:

Female:


	5. The Final Final Tribute List

Alright, here's the thing, I put this up, and I still got more entries, so I added them in, put in all of the other characters, so this time I mean it! Next chapter, story starts, I'm not accepting any more entries!

District One:

Male: Satin Calliope (Serpent's Ballet)

Female: Yonni Kotchi

District Two:

Male: Connor Rype

Female: Shine Spencer (skgirl4ever)

District Three:

Male: Mars Cooper

Female: Genevieve Mardell

District Four:

Male: Lung Travin Sector

Female: Marina Arden (GlimmerIcewood)

District Five:

Male: Rio Prittcher

Female: Megan Gallagher (Roxy43)

District Six:

Male: Learoy Kot

Female: Hanna Ratz

District Seven:

Male: Felix Gratt

Female: Katrina Oakson (Darkkystar25)

District Eight:

Male: Tristan Hooker (Percabethlover112)

Female: Ellie Cage

District Nine:

Male: Rye Sutherland

Female: Elodia Mayim

District Ten:

Male: Datwin Princeward

Female: Alissa O'Neill

District Eleven:

Male: Cedric Roberts (Lupine Eclipse)

Female: Flower paws (Peaks Island)

District Twelve:

Male: Alistair Trake

Female: Vibbon Slarter


	6. Satin and Sagathy

Satin sighed as Sagathy pulled away from his kiss. "Come on, Sagathy, this might be my last ever kiss…"

Sagathy glared at him whole-heartedly. "Don't you dare say that."

Giving her a grin, Satin wrapped his arms around her waist and pecked her on the lips. "I'm sorry." he murmured. "I promise you I'll come back…"

Sagathy nestled closer into his chest, holding him close with a worried frown. "You'd better…"

Allowing a small smile to grace his face, Satin rested his head on Sagathy's. He breathed in deeply, taking in the beautiful, tangy, exotic scent of her that he loved so much. He loved her. He loved the way she moved, the way she worried about him, the way she settled perfectly into his chest.

Rocking Sagathy gently, Satin whispered in her ear. "How could I stay away…"

He felt her smile against his chest, and then her grip around him tightened. "I hate the Capitol for doing this to you…"

Mouth tightening, Satin let her pull away slightly. They'd had this discussion before.

Sagathy's eyes were wide and beautiful, her hair falling out over her face. "Why do you have to do this, Satin?"

"Sagathy…"

"No, Satin, tell me why!" She was suddenly fierce, glaring at him with a force.

For a moment, Satin let his head drop, staring at the ground. Feeling Sagathy's eyes on him, he knew she was waiting for him to speak. She had been with him for long enough to know when he was a little distressed. "We need the money."

Confusion painted Sagathy's face. "What, I didn't know you were out of money…"

Satin smiled at her. "Victor money will get us back on our feet. That's why I have to go. Nothing to worry about, just a few weaklings from the districts, a few idiots that are going to be my 'allies'…all in a day's work."

Smiling sadly, Sagathy buried her head in his chest again, but this time, he knew there were tears in her eyes.

A pang of guilt coursed through Satin's stomach, and he put his hand on the back of her head, stroking her hair. He didn't feel guilt for anything he'd said, anything he'd done, or anything he was going to be, but he hated it when Sagathy cried.

"Oi, Calliope! You're missing your own reaping!"

Sighing, Satin pulled away, shooting a glare at the sixteen year old that had invaded the pair's private little rendezvous outside Satin's house.

Sileshia glared right back. "So, get your hands off my sister and get your arse to the square!"

Sagathy groaned loudly and spun to glare at her little brother, hands on hips. "Sileshia, get out of my face before I slap you silly!"

The younger boy looked seriously affronted. "But he's got his hands all over you!"

"Kid, if I can still see you in five seconds, I am going to castrate you." Satin growled.

Sileshia tried to be brave for a moment, but quickly scarpered.

Annoying younger sibling gone, Sagathy slumped slightly. "You should probably go."

Coming up behind her slowly, Satin felt himself slipping into his shell. "I love you, Sagathy."

Sagathy pulled off her scarf. "Take it into the arena with you. Make sure you come back for me."

Nodding solemnly, Satin allowed her to tie it around his neck.

They had one final kiss, before joining hands and walking over to the square.

The square was very full when they arrived, full of unconcerned kids that knew they were safe.

Sagathy moved off to the eighteen year old girl's section, and Satin watched her go, smiling. She was beautiful. Turning away, Satin sauntered through the boy's section.

All male eyes were on him, mutters and murmurs rising and falling. Grinning at the glaring Sileshia in the sixteen's section, Satin took his place at the front of the seventeen year old section.

This was his year.

He was the first.

The escort of District One, Tyref Stike, had been around for a very long time, but he had never looked any older. It was kind of scary. The clown-like make up was also slightly disturbing.

The usual Hunger Games speel went on for a while, and Satin used the time to search out his District partner.

Yonni Kotchi was standing in the female seventeen's, surrounded by a crowd of girls. The fire in her eyes was hard to miss, even at that distance. She was determined to win, at any cost, for the sake of winning, which meant she was damn dangerous, but she wasn't the brightest of sparks.

"And finally, the moment has come!"

Tyref stuck his death white hand in the boy's ball and Satin tore his eyes away from Yonni.

"Grata Menchen!"

Grata was a young kid, a skinny, little runt in the twelve year old section. He was the town punching bag. A ripple of laughter ran through the kids. District One would be a laughing stock with a kid like that.

Eyes turned expectantly towards Satin.

He waited a moment, staring out at Tyref with a small grin on his face, letting everyone squirm. This was his moment.

"I volunteer!"

He couldn't see Grata, but he was sure the kid had fainted.

"And here we have our male tribute for District One!"

Satin steadily walked from his section to the stage, ignoring the kids around him, the parents, the weak ones, and ascended the steps until he could stare out at the district. His district.

However this went down, he was a legend. He was in the history books.

After his volunteering, the rest of the reaping went rather quickly, Yonni calling out almost as soon as Tyref had taken his hand out of the girl's ball. The Peacekeepers came and took them away immediately. They'd already said their goodbyes.

Even so, a crowd gathered at the train station to see them off.

Cheers and tears all found their way to Satin's ears as he looked out at his crowd.

Yes, this was his time.


	7. For Moonlight

So, did you like the first chapter? Thanks to those who reviewed, and Serpent's Ballet, thanks, I'm glad you liked him!

Mmm, I think I'm just going to go in order here, one reaping per district, one chapter every few days, I'd imagine, so you won't have to wait very long for updates!

Also, for anyone reading my current Star Wars fic., (The Tournament), I will keep writing it, but updates might get a bit more spaced out…

Enjoy chapter two!

Shine pulled her frock down, the tiniest amount of nerves finding themselves a home in her stomach. She toyed absently with the bracelet on her wrist as her parents stood over her, Orn standing by with a giant scowl. Her little sister, Light, beamed at her in her lovely reaping dress.

Her father was looking over her sternly. "Now, you've got to come off nice and strong when you go out there, Shine, my dear. Hold up the Spencer name."

Shine just nodded. "I'll try, Daddy."

Her mother quickly collapsed into tears on her husband's chest. "I don't want her to go!" she wailed.

Shine knew it wasn't that the woman was scared of losing her, or anything sentimental like that, no, she was worried about losing her only other chance at fame and fortune.

She'd already tried with one daughter, but she'd never come back from the Hunger Games.

Shine moved forward and her mother's hug transferred onto her. "It's ok, mum, I'll come back."

Her father just nodded-of course she would come back, if she didn't, she'd be in big trouble-and Orn strode towards his sisters.

"Come on, Shine, Light, we need to go."

Thankful to get away from the awkward moment that was setting her nerves on edge, Shine smiled at her parents, giving them both a final hug. They wouldn't be coming to the Reaping, they never did.

The siblings walked to the square in silence for a while, taking in Shine's last moments of freedom until she got home. If she got home.

"So, have you told Ark yet?" Orn asked roughly.

Shine sighed at the mention of the pair's older brother. Ark had once been a cheerful, teasing, joking guy, but, much like Orn, after their sister Moonlight's death in the Games, he'd receded into an emotionless shell , losing all manner of personality. Orn had maintained some personality, albeit a bitter, snappy one, and a hate he nursed for the Hunger Games was what kept the flame going.

"I don't want to tell him I'm volunteering, Orn."

"Well, you've got about," he checked his watch, "half an hour until he finds out."

Shine groaned. "I don't want him to know." Moonlight's death had had such a big affect on Ark, she didn't know what he would do if he found out she was going to volunteer as well.

"It was always going to happen. I'm sure he knows already, I mean, it's not like you spend six hours a day sewing or baking, or anything even vaguely feminine." Orn countered.

Sighing again, Shine turned to her brother, eyes wide and pleading. "Orn, promise me you'll look after Light properly, if I don't get back."

Shine saw her brother stiffen, noted the little tightening of his mouth that, over the years, she had learnt to recognise as worry.

"Light, go ahead. Go." he ordered.

Light, too, had learnt to recognise Orn's moods. They were practically at the square, so she ran ahead, hovering around the edges to wait to say goodbye to Shine.

All at once, Orn's angry little shell melted away and he turned to his sister, holding her shoulders. "Hey, don't say that, you're going to come back. You promised mum and dad, remember?" he said softly, with a smirk.

Shine laughed, fighting back tears. "Yeah, I guess I did."

"And you promised me, right?"

Shine nodded slowly, but the nerves were tying her stomach in knots. "Just tell me you'll look after her, Orn!"

Mouth turning in a grimace, Orn looked at his sister with aggrieved eyes. "I promise." he said solemnly.

Satisfied, Shine smiled at him, feeling her innards untwist, the butterflies leaving her stomach. "Good. Thank you."

She hugged him tightly, relieved to feel that he returned it just as hard. "I'll miss you while I'm in there, big brother."

Orn scowled. "I can never forgive the Capitol if they take two of my sisters. I'll miss you too, Shine. Stay safe. I'll tell Ark."

Shine nodded and reluctantly let him go, turning to the square and breathing in deeply. She smiled at Light, engulfing her in a hug.

"You ready for this, Shine?"

Shine grinned at her sister. Now that she was sure she'd be properly looked after, she was almost looking forward to the Games. Life in the districts could get a bit monotonous.

"You betcha'."

Light tugged on the bracelet. "I know I didn't know her very well, but Moonlight would be proud of you, I'm sure."

Shine felt tears threatening to come to her eyes again as she toyed with her sister's old token. Her token. If there was anything anyone could have said to steel her nerves at that moment, to assure her that what she was doing was right, Light had said it.

She loved her sister.

Both of them.

Hugging Light tightly, Shine tugged the younger girl's dress into place. "Thank you so much, Light. You keep safe, and take care of the boys, won't you? Make sure they don't do anything stupid."

Light grinned up at her sister. "Don't worry, sis, I got it covered. Have fun! Good luck!"

And she was gone.

Giving a grin, Shine strode confidently in amongst her friends in the sixteen year olds, immediately seeking out her best friend Secret Lennings in the crowd of bored girls. In the Career Districts, Reapings were a very boring affair. Everyone knew that _someone_ would volunteer, so the reapings were just a waste of time, standing around in the heat and listening to the mayor lecture them for an hour. An then the escort got a turn.

Secret, however, had tears in her eyes. As soon as Shine got there, she grabbed her in a hug.

Shine tutted. "Aww, come on, Secret."

Secret sniffled and pulled away. "I'm sorry."

They smiled at each other and laughed, before they were surrounded by chattering girls.

"Shine, Shine, are you volunteering?" one of them asked in her shockingly high pitched voice.

Shine nodded with a smile and the chattering immediately rose into squeals.

"Oh my god, Shine! Do you know who the guy is?"

That gave Shine some pause. She didn't actually know which of the guys were volunteering. She hoped it was Rafe. She said as much and Secret and the other girls heartily agreed.

They barely even noticed as the escort and the mayor ploughed through their speeches.

They only quieted when the escort, with his skin in a pattern of yellow and orange polka dots, rather dramatically raised his hand to put it in the reaping bowl. "And the male Tribute for this District 1 is Ponne Fraggle!"

Ponne was a funny guy, a seventeen year old that was always a bit of an idiot. Shine didn't like him very much, but those kids that weren't in the volunteer or volunteer fan cliché, seemed to think he was hilarious.

He held up his hands, took a bow, and gestured back to a tall bloke called Connor Rype.

Shine pouted. Not Rafe, then.

After Connor had taken his place on the stage, it was her turn.

"And the female Tribute is…Secret Lennings!"

Giving a laugh, Shine looked over and the shocked Secret. "Now I bet you're glad I'm volunteering, hey?"

Secret giggled nervously as everyone turned to look at her. "Yeah, I suppose I am. Besides, I know you're going to come back a winner."

Shine gave her a hug. "Thanks, Secret."

Stepping forward, she shook her head around. She was beautiful, she knew that, and as her Dad said, she needed to come off as strong and being drop dead gorgeous would help her case immensely.

"I volunteer!"

Ok, so here's what I'm going to do. Because I'm in a good mood, and I have a quote I want to stick in that I'll forget if I don't write it soon, and because I got so many positive reviews last time, I'm going to try and write the District Three Reaping and post it tomorrow!

Although, I might have to study for my maths exam…hmm…


	8. Against All Odds

Feeling her mouth gaping at the crowd of people in the square, Genevieve held her dad's hand as they walked to the reaping. It was Genevieve's first year, and the pomp and ceremony of the whole affair had her very excited, and _very _nervous.

She knew her dad was just as, if not more nervous. She could tell from the grip of his hand on hers, the way he shifted it every so often, nervously rubbing his beard at every other step.

Giving him her sweetest smile, Genevieve attempted to assure him, "Don't worry, Dad, I've only got one slip in, I didn't even have to apply for tesserae. The odds are completely on my side."

He knew that as well as she did, but he still smiled back at her weakly. "I'm sorry, sweetheart, I just don't want to lose you."

Genevieve hugged her dad around the waist. She was only little for her age, and her head only reached her dad's chest. Although they were reasonably well off, Genevieve had always been a skinny girl, and she'd never been tall.

Her father put an arm around her shoulders as they arrived at the square. He knelt down. "Ok, sweetheart, you just keep calm and don't worry, alright? Everything's going to be fine."

Genevieve gave her dad a giant hug. "It's you I'm worried about dad." she proclaimed with a grin.

As he stood up to leave, the stressed man gave her a rueful smile.

Genevieve turned and found her section. It wasn't hard. In District Three, everyone was little, but the twelve year olds were all tiny, and most of the girls were already crying. As Genevieve entered the tearful picture of the female twelve year old's pen, she tried to stay quiet and unnoticed. This was her best blouse, she didn't want to get some other girl's tears and snot all over it.

No-one approached her. As the cute daughter of the town's baker, she was known by everyone, and liked by everyone. Her good grades in school found her friends of all ages and genders, but although she _knew_ everyone, she wasn't particularly close to any of the citizens of District Three. Except her dad.

When Genevieve's mum had been alive, four years ago, they had been very close, but since she had died of a little known mental condition that had eventually cause her to kill herself, Genevieve and her dad had clung to each other for support. Over the years, the scale had tipped in the direction of her father leaning on her a bit more than she leant on him, but she didn't mind. It was her dad, what else could she do?

Having been forced to watch the Reapings from home, Genevieve already knew the proceedings. Listen to the Mayor talk about basic history, listen to escort ramble on about the same thing, or in her case, watch the escort shine as she moved in the light.

The heat was astonishing, with so many bodies so close together, and Genevieve fanned herself absently, not really listening. She looked around at the other groups or kids, all herded together and sweating like there was no tomorrow. None of them even looked vaguely interested in what was happening in front of them.

She sought out her father in the crowd gathered around the edges, standing on her tip-toes to see over the other's heads. He was nervously shifting his weight from foot to foot, dry washing his hands and scraping them through his hair, eyes fixed on the escort.

Reluctantly, Genevieve swung her eyes back onto the shiny lady.

She stuck her hand in the first ball, using her super long nails to grab onto a slip and draw it out. She gave it a flourish and called out in a hideous Capitol accent, "Mars Cooper!"

Genevieve knew that name. Mars was a scrawny kid a year older than her. He wasn't very good in school, he got bullied a lot and he didn't have any friends. Genevieve couldn't see him through the crowd, but she saw the ripple of movement in the boys as he was pushed to the front. He got there, and was frozen in a state of pure shock, mouth open, eyes bulging behind thick rimmed glasses that he always had to push up his nose. One of the boys gave him a rough shove, and he tripped and fell forward.

No-one laughed.

Picking himself up, he slowly moved up to the stage, tremors clearly visible in his small body.

Genevieve couldn't have felt worse if she tried, watching that poor kid climbed the stairs to his doom.

The escort ploughed on without even noticing Mars. "Genevieve Mardell!"

Ok, maybe she could feel worse.

Genevieve felt every turn onto her. Surprisingly, she didn't faint or swoon or cry or yell, she just nodded solemnly.

The twelve year olds that had briefly stopped crying immediately burst into tears again.

Genevieve walked slowly, calmly, onto the stage, even though, in her head, she was screaming.

What happened to odds? Why did a twelve year old girl get to go in and get slaughtered? Why did all of her friends and her poor father, who had already seen enough death in his family, why did they all have to watch her die?

Or watch her kill?

Shaking her head ever so slightly, Genevieve realised what she had to do. Immediately, she added a tad of a tremor to her walk, allowing tears to come to her eyes. If she was going to have any chance in this thing, she needed an extraordinary amount of pity on her side. She focussed on walking up the stairs, making the fact that she was a little bit too small to take them properly prominent.

Once up, she shakily shook Mars' hand, seeing that he was still bug eyed with shock, and sought out her father in the crowd.

The absolute horror painted on his face would stay with her forever.

Twenty minutes later, Genevieve sat by herself in the Justice Building, looking at her hands.

What was she going to do? She was too small, too weak…

The door opened and her father barrelled through, sweeping her into his arms in a waterfall of tears.

Unbidden, Genevieve's eyes watered and fat drops of water swept down her dainty face. "Daddy, I don't want to go! Daddy, don't let them take me, I don't want to go!"

Her father was hiccoughing violently, choking as he tried to talk and cry at the same time. He crushed her ribs with his hug. "I won't, sweetheart, I won't, they're not taking you too, not you!"

Horrible sounds wrestled their way out of Genevieve's throat. "Daddy, I love you, I love you, Daddy, don't let them take me!"

Seeing that there was going to be a problem, white uniformed peacekeepers forced their way into the room. "Time's up." one said blandly.

Genevieve's father spun on them, his bloodshot eyes glistening and wild. "You're not taking her, get away from my daughter!"

As the Peacekeepers advanced, he struck out with a primal growl.

He was quickly beaten into submission by the guards.

One ran forward to hold Genevieve back as she tried to fight her way to her bloodied father as they dragged him away. "Daddy! Daddy!" she screamed as loud as her little lungs could scream, and then some more.

In return, her father was striking out blindly, fighting the constraining holds of the peacekeepers.

"Genny! Genevieve! Genny, my baby! I want my baby! You can't have her!"

Genevieve spun and bit the arm of the peacekeeper that was holding her back.

Hissing in pain, the man's eyes widened in anger. He quickly caught her again, clouting her over the head.

Her father's screams echoed in her head as everything went black.


	9. Melting the Ice

_Ok, I feel really bad, but it wasn't my fault I haven't updated for ages! Honest! My internet crashed and it only came back to life today! So, here is an extra long chapter, and because I feel bad for not updating for so long, I'll try and put the next couple of chapters up by the end of the week._

Marina smirked at Maddox as he attempted to tail her. "Honestly, Maddy, I've been catching you out for years, and you still think you can follow me without me noticing?"

The younger boy slumped out of the trees, a grin on his face even though he was sulking. Maddox was fourteen, two years younger than Marina, but him and his sister were extremely close. He preferred sailing to fishing, unlike Rina. He was too laid back and relaxed to even think about dedicating his life to anything but hanging around in his boat with a paintbrush.

Marina loved to spearfish, the more active of the fishing methods, and she was a skilled cliff diver. She generally enjoyed physical activity, especially if it involved water, and was damn good at it. She was the fastest swimmer at her school, and she wasn't exactly slow on her feet, in either sense of the word.

In that way, she was the complete opposite of her brother, but in looks, they were exactly the same.

They'd both inherited bright green eyes from their mother, and her tall, lean build. The brown hair that they both had was something of a mystery, stemming from some long forgotten gene lost in District Four in the past, although on both of them, it was slowly getting bleached into conformity by the sun. No-one could get away without a tan in District Four.

"Just testing." Maddox smirked, joining her on the path in his reaping clothes.

Marina looked down at her own attire. Their parents had demanded she wore the prettiest dress in the house, which was in fact her mother's. Marina had been touched by the gesture. The dress was beautiful, a light blue gown that went down to just above the floor, nicely hanging off her skinny frame, and it had previously acted as her mother's wedding attire.

Their parents would be coming to the Reaping, of course, they had to, but Marina had gone on ahead for some alone time, just to clear her head.

She was actually kind of glad Maddox had come after her. She wanted company.

"Did you ever have Miss Triff?" Maddox asked as they walked, smiling as per usual.

Triff. Triff. The name put some kind of light on. "Yeah, I think so…hang on, was she that _oh so lovely _art teacher?"

Maddy nodded veraciously. "That's the one. She gave me a C- for my assignment! I thought it was awesome! Lots of people did."

Marina's eyes widened in shock. Maddox was a throroughly amazing artist. "What, that picture of the dolphin?"

Nodding again, Maddy looked affronted. "Yeah, it was good, wasn't it?"

"It was brilliant!" Glaring slightly at the road ahead, Marina suddenly hated Miss Triff even more for hurting her baby brother's feelings. "That's alright Madds, she's just a horrid old lady. Art is really subjective. Don't worry about it."

Maddox nodded, and they continued their walk in silence.

Hearing her brother whistling a little ditty, Marina closed her eyes, letting the breeze off the ocean sweep over her. She inhaled deeply, taking in the smell and storing it away inside of her. She might never get to smell it again.

"Hey, Arden! Arden!"

The sound of her last name barely broke through her consciousness.

Maddox's worried voice invaded her reverie. "Rina, help!"

Marina's eyes snapped open.

Two big, ugly boys were running towards her little brother. They only seemed about fifteen, but they were proper little thugs, and Maddox was scared out of his wits.

"Who are these guys, Maddox?"

Maddox's wide eyes were fixed on the charging boys. "They're these guys in the grade above me. They found out I like Rachel, and I don't know what they're gonna do to me, but I'm sure it's gonna be painful."

He started to run, but Marina grabbed his sleeve.

She pulled out a knife and waited for a moment. She didn't have a trident handy, and although she was a pretty good shot with a knife, she didn't trust herself enough to throw at that distance.

As the boys lumbered closer, she drew back her arm, only just aware of Maddox next to her, obviously thinking she'd gone mad.

"And in three…two…one…"

The thugs came into range, and Marina launched the knife at them.

They slowed slightly, obviously wary that she seemed to have thrown something at them.

The knife buried itself at the feet of the lead boy.

Marina smiled in a satisfied way as they both emitted loud shrieks. They both looked over at her, but didn't dare come any closer.

"I don't think they'll bug you again, Madds."

Maddox's pale skin quickly regained colour and his tense muscles sagged with relief. A smile that warmed Rina's insides lit his face and he happily turned and gave the boys the finger.

Rolling her eyes as she started walking, Marina couldn't help but grin. She'd miss Maddy in the arena. If she went, this year. "Very eloquent."

Maddox shrugged, his grin even bigger than usual.

As they walked however, getting ever closer to the town square, the basis of the yearly nightmare called the Reaping, the smile slowly slid off of his face.

Marina was worried by this, but she didn't act on her concern until his head fell down to stare at the ground under his dragging feet.

"What's up, Madds?"

Maddox shrugged, and when he looked up, giving her a brave grin, she was surprised to find tears in his eyes. "I guess I just really don't want you to go."

They'd had this talk every year for the past four years. "And I don't want you to go either, Madds."

He nodded, sniffling, and Marina wrapped an arm around his shoulders as they walked. "Hopefully, we'll both be coming home again in an hour."

The conversation ad always followed the same pattern. Those exact words, in fact.

Not very deep or poetic, but they were routine, and they both found their own form of comfort in the familiar words.

They made it to the square, and exchanged a hug and kiss, before splitting off to go to their own sections, both with unshed tears in their eyes. Composing herself, Marina plastered a smile on her face. She didn't have to make an effort when she saw her friends Elena and Easton waving at her from the seventeen year old section. Smiling at them, she made her way over to the sixteen year olds, grinning at the girl pressing against the cord of the pen. Ducking under the rope, Marina gave Coral Ripley a hug. Coral grinned brightly, quickly breaking off the embrace. "Are you ok? Is Maddy ok? You both seemed kind of down. You did really well with those thugs. One of them was Lung's like, cousin, or nephew or something."

Coral always spoke quickly, but never like that.

At Rina's laugh, she shut up, blushing. "Sorry, I'm just nervous."

Marina grinned. "I know, Coral. Who isn't? Lung? Really? Madds and I are fine, he's just a bit shaken up."

Coral nodded, her blonde curls bouncing, and her reply was a whisper as the escort, a man fashioned as a lion, took the stage. "That's good. Good luck."

Marina squeezed her hand in response.

"Hello, citizens of District 4, welcome to this year's Reaping!"

The stupid Capitol accent and the excited tone were a strange mix with the fierce lion skin.

Marina stood through the drivel that followed, thankful for the fact that their Mayor was a fairly succinct speaker.

"And now we come to our favourite part of the day!"

The man gave himself a drum roll with clawed hands, pulling a slip out of the male ball. "And our male tribute, for District 4, is…Tabar Collins!"

Marina felt a sinking in her stomach she felt at every Reaping, no matter who got picked. Tabar was a really nice guy, a 13 year old percussionist that Maddox was close with.

"I volunteer."

The words were delivered with a bland disinterest from the lips of one Lung Travin Sector.

Lung was a…friend? No, she wouldn't go as far as to a friend, especially since one of his relations was bullying her little brother, but he was an acquaintance. In fact, she didn't like him all that much. The only reason she even knew him, was because he hung out with Easton, and they sometimes saw each other at school. He was a very scary guy, and had an extremely…commanding presence. His silent, angry nature conflicted with Marina's own sarcastic, joking leadership. No-one really liked Lung, except for Advance Devours, who was a bit of a…well, a prick, but he was pretty funny. And Easton, of course, but Easton liked everyone.

They guy climbed on stage as though nothing had happened. "Lung Travin Sector." he cut in, before the escort could even ask his name.

After only a moment of confusion, he beamed, dipping his hand into the girl's ball.

"Isn't this exciting? So, our girl is…Marina Arden!"

Marina took a step back. No. No way. No. She felt the blood drain from her face.

Only Coral's hand on her arm kept her upright.

Instantly, Rina searched out her brother. Maddox was pale as a ghost, and his face was fixed an expression of stunned shock.

Breathing in, Marina stepped up onto the stage.

She felt tears in her eyes, but was too far in shock to register them.

She couldn't hear anything, sound just blew past her ears, receding into a low watery bubbling, giving her the impression of being underwater.

As she shook hands with Lung, she was surprised to find him enter her underwater world. His hand was warm, a comfort in her chilly stupor, and his eyes, always so cold and unfeeling, held pain and regret. Emotion was melting his icy eyes.

He pulled away his hand and cast Rina back into the real world.

Marina still looked at him. The emotion had gone from his eyes, leaving Rina to wonder whether it had ever been there at all.

_There you are, another chapter! I managed to incorporate both characters into one chapter! Kind of…not really…moreso than usual!_

_I'll try and get more up soon now that my internet's back, but progress may be slow until my concert is over. Last couple of weeks of school and three hours of rehearsals aren't a good combo, thank god for meditation…anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chappie, please review!_


	10. Apples

_Alright, I have no excuse for not updating, except for school! Here is the District Five Reaping chapter. The other districts will follow. Soon. I go on holidays in a couple of weeks, and I'll try to write on Sunday. The next one will be probably be a quickie though, if you want it soon. More reviews will tempt me. They'll remind me to write. :p_

Megan deftly took strands of her sister's hair, weaving it into plaits and twisting it neatly around the back of her head. Lizzie squirmed, the five year old never content to sit in the one spot for too long, and as it grew near to her birthday, she gradually grew more hyperactive. It was a good thing, then, that Megan was well practiced in doing up her sister's hair.

Their mother was a busy woman, the scatter-brained owner of the town's medicine store, and Megan often had to take care of the little ones. Lizzie was the oldest of her sisters. The other, Rhia, was three.

And then there was Ferrid.

Ferrid was twelve, and it was his first year in the reaping. He was nervous to say the least. He was pretending he wasn't, combing his curly brown hair very casually, but Megan knew those worried green eyes too well to take the bait. He was scared.

While their mother was zipping around the house getting Rhia ready, she secured Lizzie's hair with a pin and ribbon and walked over to her brother, taking the comb off him. He'd already brushed it about five times. "Keep doing that and your hair's going to fall out."

Ferrid smiled ever so slightly.

Frowning didn't suit his freckles. Megan should know, she had them too.

Clipping his chin, Megan smiled, and after a moment, he smiled back. He knew there wasn't really anything she could say to make everything better. No-one could do that.

"Alright, I'm ready, let's go, we're late!" That was their mother, running through the kitchen with Rhia flying along beside her, dragged by her hand.

Lizzie ran over to her identically dressed little sister, grabbing her hand from her mother and running ahead.

Megan let them go, putting an arm around Ferrid's shoulders. Their mother came over, kissing both of their heads and smiling at them both. Lizzie and Rhia didn't understand. The Hunger Games were too evil for their innocent minds to comprehend. They just knew that whoever went, didn't come back.

"My babies. Both of keep your fingers crossed, ok? Remember that your dad is looking out for you, wherever he is."

The group gathered in a tight group hug and Megan held her own tears in as she knew the others would be doing as well.

Arm in arm, the group walked out of the door, heading for the village. There was an abundance of trees along the edge of their road, trees with delicious apples that no-one was allowed to eat. Forbidden fruit, if you would. When Megan had been 8, before Rhia and Lizzie were born, their father had been very much alive. He had taught Megan how to get apples from those trees without getting hurt or caught. When he was older, Ferrid had been brought in on the trick too. While their father was alive, it had been their little secret, just him, and Megan and Ferrid.

The factory incident that brought about their dad's death was only days after Rhia was born.

After he died, those apples had been all that kept the Gallagher family alive until the medicine store took off. District five was fairly well off, but with their father just dead and two new, little mouths to feed, times were hard.

Stolen apples meant a lot to a starving family.

Even now, with plentiful food and water, stolen apples were significant. They featured on every birthday dish, and served as a good luck charm for Megan. On days like today, they gave her the little bit of extra strength she needed to break through the nerves and fear for her and her brother, for the rest of her family.

For two weeks after the Reaping , the two weeks between the terrifying event and Lizzie's birthday, they saved apples, saved food, saved all sorts, and had a big feast for Lizzie's birthday. For the older kids, it served as a celebration of not being picked for the games.

For Lizzie it was just an amazing birthday party.

Smiling, Megan thought back to the most recent birthday, which was Rhia's. It was very fun. Birthdays were always amazing in their family.

Megan flicked back to being eight, and deftly scaled the fence, knocking a branch and jumping down to catch the falling apples with a practiced movement. Grinning at Ferrid, she threw him one of the delicious fruits, keeping the other for herself.

Their mother had moved ahead with the little ones, knowing the pair would want time by themselves to prepare themselves mentally for the Reaping.

Ferrid smiled at Megan and began walking away, pensievely munching his apple.

Megan walked slower, on her own side of the road, watching Ferrid. He'd always been a fatalistic thinker. If something had a chance of going wrong, his mind automatically went to the worst case scenario. Megan felt sorry for him; she knew what that felt like.

Sighing, she looked around, taking in the fantastic views of District 5. The big advantage of living in the lumber district was an abundance of amazing views, mostly visible because the trees in the way had been cut down.

Hearing a crunch that wasn't her and was too far away to be Ferrid, Megan dragged her eyes from the mountains and whipped her head around to find a boy. He had an apple.

District 5 was pretty big, and Megan wasn't the most sociable of people, so she didn't have a clue who this guy was. He looked vaguely familiar, from school probably, but past that, she knew nothing.

He was looking at her with a curious expression.

"How did you get an apple?" she demanded.

The boy cocked his head to the side. "My dad taught me."

That comment gave Megan pause. Eyes softening, she moved closer as they both began to walk to the Reaping. Not together, just within talking distance.

"I'm Rio. You're the Gallagher girl, aren't you?" the boy said eventually, his tall, lanky form shading Megan from the sun.

"Yeah," she nodded, "Megan Gallagher."

"We have maths together on Wednesdays." Rio said, before taking a munch out of his apple, his fluffy, light brown hair ruffling with the breeze.

Megan opened her mouth to speak, but instead whipped around and hid behind a wall, shoving her apple behind her. Her eyes met Rio's, in the same position on the opposite wall. They'd seen the peacekeeper at the same time.

They stared at each other and held their breath until the man had passed on.

Sharing a shaky smile, they continued towards the Reaping, both eating their apples just that little bit faster. Who knew if it was going to be their last.

_Alright, so it'd be nice to get reviews from people telling me who their favourites are so far!_

_Do it! You know you want to!_

_By the by, my apologies to the district partners that aren't being mentioned as such, but I'm not going to do twenty-four reaping chapters! The other tributes will get their own focus chapters at a later date. _


	11. The Cripple

_Thank you to my reviewers! You both made me smile! You may have just won your characters some brownie points… :p_

Learoy sighed as he shut the door of the home behind him slowly. He'd lived in the unofficial orphanage of District 6 since he was seven. It had been five years since the devastating fire that had rendered half of the district orphans, including him. His brothers had been in the fire and perished with the parents.

Learoy had been able to escape, barely with his life and had gained a physical deformity. He only had one leg, and the fire had burnt away most of his sight. One side of his face was contorted into a permanent grimace, the ear and features on that side of his face never to move again.

The fire had destroyed the hospital, the factory and a lot of the houses of the district, and the orphans had been gathered into one place. They were made to live in the house as a temporary arrangement, and over time, it had just become a children's home.

The peacekeepers that ran the house weren't the nicest of people. Learoy was picked on a lot by the white uniformed devils, mainly because he couldn't fight back. He was smart, Learoy, or had been. He had been banned from going to school because he scared the other children, so instead he stayed at home, and tried to keep unnoticed. The only time he went out of the house was when he was sent to fetch something, and this, the Reaping.

He didn't have a good outfit, so he wore what he always did, some long pants that hid his loss of leg and a dirty, white button up shirt. All of the boys in the home wore the same thing. The girls wore white blouses and long skirts.

Sighing again, Learoy pulled up his crutches and began his slow journey to the square.

District Six was really a dud district. They produced morphling and did medical research, sending everything to the Capitol. They had giant factories that belched out so much toxic waste that the sky was dark all day round and any plant life or vegetation died or was as twisted and crippled as what was left of Learoy's leg. No-one in the District wanted to be there and no-one in the district could leave. If you were born in six, you stayed in six.

Learoy looked at the new factory in disgust. You would have thought the district that produced the medical miracles that the Capitol claimed as their own could have saved his leg. No. They couldn't even save his dignity by letting him pretend he was normal, letting him go to school, have a normal life.

His anger faded quickly, like it always did. He couldn't do anything about it, life was always going to be the same for him. Unbearably unchanging and completely and utterly worthless.

The square was already full and the mayor had already started talking by the time Learoy arrived, pushing into the twelve year old boy's pen. He had no friends. He barely saw anyone in the district, let alone talk to them. The mayor was almost finished his speech about the tale of the Hunger Games that everyone knew by heart.

Learoy caught the tail end of the speech, before the escort mounted the stage with a physically altered smile permanently fixed on her face. She did her own talk, through lips that didn't move.

Learoy frowned. A permanent smile was the most depressing thing he could think of.

"The male tribute for District Six, is Raku Syri!"

The boy beside Learoy began shaking violently. He cast his face around, eyes wild, waiting, hoping for anything that would save him. His eyes instantly went to what must be his family, a pair of thin parents and young children with fear and shock plain in their eyes. Love.

Raku began to sway and fell back, almost fainting. Quick reflexes made Learoy catch the falling boy. Missing a leg as he was, the affect overbalanced him and both of them ended up on the floor. Their was fear in those eyes, fear, pure and cold. Learoy could see that the fear wasn't of being hacked to death in a mindless game created out of sadism. It was fear of losing those he loved.

At that moment, Learoy experienced a point of perfect clarity. Everything in the world, everything that had happened to him, the horrible fate that had been assigned to him suddenly made sense. He realised the point to his life.

Everything he loved had been taken away from him. Everyone he loved had been destroyed. His livelihood, anything he once could have done or been had been cast into irreversible ruin. There was simply no reason for him to live, and if he was going to die, this was most definitely the best way to do it. He didn't want to live. He didn't want this boy to die. That worked out well for both of them.

"I volunteer."

A hush followed his words, but Learoy didn't care about anything but Raku. The boy's mortified eyes filled with tears, and relief. He smiled, and he squeezed Learoy's arm in a show of gratitude he couldn't find the words for.

Learoy struggled to his feet, recovering his crutches. His smile grew as he walked up to the stage. Relief was coming soon. Raku would be with his family again.

He made it to the stage. "I'm Learoy Kott." he murmured.

The proceedings went on without him hearing or seeing much of it. He knew everyone would be staring at him, at his deformity, at his obvious mental disillusionment. Why would a cripple volunteer for the games? Well, he'd been stared at before. His sense of inner peace could no longer be disturbed.

"And the female tribute is Hanna Ratz!"

Learoy didn't see the girl until she arrived onstage with him, shaking, eyes wide. She was small and malnourished, with glasses bigger than her face. She wouldn't last a minute, and she knew it. As she arrived onstage, she gasped at the sight of Learoy up close and backed away, scared.

Learoy smiled. Relief would come soon.

_Alright, so that was a tad more macabre than I expected…anywho, the next chapter should be up relatively soon…I think …I hope…. _

_Please review with my favourites._


	12. Basketcases

The wind blew through the trees, sending the bells of District Seven pealing. The sound travelled through the village, starting at one end and echoing around the border of the town. Beautiful pitches met and swirled in the air, bouncing off of each other and creating a heart-rending harmony.

Dread followed those bells wherever they were heard. The bells were the reaping bells. When they rang, someone was going to die.

Katrina Oakson pushed her chin towards the sky, closing her eyes and taking in the sound of the bells. Such beauty shouldn't be wasted on such a devastating event. Grimacing, Katrina turned her head to her mother, trying to pretend that they weren't about to journey to a funeral. They just didn't know who was going to go in the coffin yet.

"Are you ready, Kat?" Katrina's mum, Flerra asked.

Katrina nodded solemnly. "As ready as I'm going to be."

The final Oakson family member entered the kitchen. Rodden was a big man, a nervous one with a smile that lit up his face. He was Katrina's father, and a true gentleman. He had been married to Flerra for many, many years, with Katrina coming somewhere in the middle. She was fifteen, and a little bit distant. She loved her family to pieces, but most other people thought she was a little weird.

Katrina liked books. She liked to read about places that weren't District Seven, she liked to gather information, but most of all, she liked to watch. She loved sitting on top of a building, or in a tree, and simply observing the people passing beneath her. Over time, she had honed her aim with sticks and rocks and darts to hit factory debris and whatnot on the ground, to stave off boredom.

District Seven was fairly boring for the schoolkids. You weren't allowed to work in the factories until you had completed the necessary education, just in case you blew yourself up. So, kids like Katrina went to school everyday for four hours, and hung around for the rest of their time, waiting until they were eighteen and allowed to work in the DNA labs.

Most kids in the District engaged in clubs to keep them entertained, and the clubs became gangs. The club and gang members ranged from eight to eighteen. Boredom created these divisions in the kids, and the divisions created tension. The groups had become more defined over time, until they were something that you couldn't escape from even if you tried, and the larger groups could get very violent. One minute you could be chatting to your friends, and the next, you were in the middle of a gang war. Cliques gone out of control.

The groups were all stereotyped so badly, each gang had allies and enemies, those they considered neutral. Over time, the expanse of District Seven had become turf. Turf wars were rare, but unless you were stupid, you stayed on your side of the line. Only limited amounts of gangs could go freely over anyone's turf, and they were the Musos, because they were essentially the peacekeepers, and Katrina's own group, the Basketcases, mainly because they were loonies.

The Basketcases were just the wierdos. Where all of the other groups hung out constantly, never going around in less than twos or threes, the Basketcases were rarely with other people. They were scattered around everyone's territory, seeing as they had no home turf.

Katrina had embraced the Basketcase label at an early age, and lived up to the title with eagerness. She was a loner, not a loony, but as long as she was thought of as one, she wouldn't be troubled by any gang affiliations.

Now was an especially good time to be a neutral presence. The biggest group, the jocks, were collecting their subgroups and having a bit of a cold war with the secondary subgroup of the artisans, the art kids. Arties and Jocks had never mixed well. Musos refused to get involved, but drama kids were helping out. The other big group, the Nerds, were keeping well out of it.

Artisans (minus musos) vs. Jocks.

Half the population of District Seven was involved in that.

The adults had all grown up in those groups, and rarely married outside of their own gangs. They never got directly involved with the feuds, but they always subtly helped their own old groups.

Katrina's parents both had been greenies, environmental agents. Greenies were a splitaway group, but weren't big enough to be considered a main. They sabotaged the side they considered the enemy, but never attacked directly, being an essentially pacifist faction.

That was why Katrina liked hanging out in trees, far away from the confusing web of gangs and potential violence that was a constant threat down on the ground.

Katrina smiled at her dad. "You look good, Dad."

Rodden smiled, walking over and kissing the top of her head, Flerra walking beside him. "You too, darling."

Flerra brushed back a lock of light brown hair from Katrina's face. "You ok?"

Shrugging, Katrina just smiled. Like her father, she was a person of very little words.

Rodden and Flerra both wrapped their arms around Katrina's waist and the trio walked down the road to the Reaping like that, passing through the Greenies territory, to the Poet's turf and onto the Square. The Square and the school were the only neutral territory in the district.

A fair amount of people were already there. Even within each age group and gender pen, the latest war was obvious. The split was fairly even, with the balance of numbers tipping slightly to the Jocks.

Katrina sighed and hid in the corner of the fourteen year old girl's pen, trying not to be noticed. She stayed closer to the Artisans. The Jocks were more likely to start a fight.

She could feel it. The tension. It was ever-present in District Seven. It filled every street and every schoolroom. She hated it. It was…she didn't have the words to describe it. She just hated the violence. The closer she got to other people, the more she felt it, the pulsating darkness that extended from everyone's interactions. She closed her eyes and tried to push it away all through the speeches.

"Katrina Oakson!"

Her eyes snapped open. No-one knew who Katrina Oakson was. No-one knew where to look to find their tribute, but Katrina was almost thankful to get on the stage, to get away from the horrible atmosphere that surrounded her. She almost ran up to the escort.

She revelled in the feeling of distance that kept her safe from the dark tension, until Felix Gratt mounted the stage. Katrina knew him. Everyone knew him. He was only thirteen, but he was quickly rising through the ranks of the Musos. He was an inspirational speaker, and Katrina could see the solemn faces of the musos as they registered this new information. They would need to find a new heir to lead.

Felix looked solemn as well, but somewhat resigned to his fate. He even gave a gentle smile as he shook Katrina's hand.

Good policy.

If you couldn't do anything else, why not smile?


	13. Swordplay is Childsplay

Ellie lounged back against the stage, waiting for someone else to arrive. She shifted slightly on the grass, trying not to crease her dress too much. The Plaza was the only place in District 8 that had grass. She sighed as a small green stain appeared on the hem.

On either side of her, sat her brother and sister. Grant was tall, and muscular, like their father. Ellie's sister, Dawn, was also tall, but slender. Both of her siblings had the blonde curls of their mother. Ellie didn't look much like either of them. She'd inherited her lack of height and slim build from her mother, but she had her father's curly brown hair, and bright, green eyes. Her eyes were almost as good as her size when it came to convincing people she was younger than she actually was.

The three of them were at the Plaza for the Reaping. As the children of the Town Mayor, they had to be there early to mingle with the Capitol Crowd for five minutes and get ignored for the rest of the time.

It was the same every year, ever since she was old enough to walk, and even before then Dawn had carried her. Smile for the cameras, patiently wait out the cooing and blubbering of the Escort, and then go and sit at the bottom of the stage, out of the way, while mummy and daddy did business.

Ellie tried not to remember, feeling boredom cloud her cognitive functions, but brightened up as Grant threw a stick at her, grabbing one for himself.

Dawn rolled her eyes, sighing exaggeratedly, but couldn't help grinning.

"En guarde!" Grant warned, leaping to his feet.

Ellie was already up.

In a flash, Grant's stick had jumped up to prod Ellie in a speedy attack borne of skill and practice.

Ellie was faster. Her stick came up to block the attack just in time, and with excited grins on both sides, the spar began.

Dancing and flicking, the pair fought with energy and talent. They shared a passion for swordplay, you could see it in their eyes, as they wove through and around each other, skilfully dodging and leaping away from the other's stick. They'd been fighting each other for so long, they knew the other's style so well, every move could be anticipated.

Well, most of the moves.

Ellie fell backwards under a volley of blows from her brother, and tripped over her ankle. She fell back, and Grant went for the kill. At the last moment, Ellie pivoted, leaving Grant's momentum to pull him to the ground. He landed with an oof, finding Ellie's stick on his chest. He grinned. "Nice move."

Ellie gave him a sugary smile. "You taught it to me." Although she was only twelve, Ellie could still beat her brother with a sword. Half of the time, at least.

"That was a mistake." He jumped up, ready for another round.

A blur of red barrelled into Grant, knocking him to the ground again.

The next anyone saw, he was on his stomach, with his arm twisted behind his back, and a larger boy sitting on top of him.

Ellie only needed one look at the mop of dark hair and the equally as dark eyes to know it was Tristan, Grant's best friend. Tristan was always over at their house, but with his ghostly pale skin, the painful looking scar running over his cheek, he was a little creepy, and Ellie tried to steer clear. He was 15; of an age with Grant, and they seemed to get on really well. Ellie didn't know much about him, but they were still kind of friendly. Sort of. They nodded to each other when they passed on the street. They'd had a couple of conversations.

Ellie dropped her stick, leaving the two boys to wrestle in peace and going to sit by Dawn again. She already knew that Tristan would win the wrestling match. He always did.

Dawn held out her hand and the pair nonchalantly engaged in a lengthy secret handshake hi-5, but split up as the Plaza began to flood with people. Dawn leant down and kissed Ellie on the head. "Good luck." she murmured, before going off to join her parents. Dawn was 19, a year safe of the Reaping, but she still had to attend.

This was Ellie's first year. Forcing down the nerves roiling in her stomach, Ellie ducked under the rope into the rapidly filling twelve year old girl's section. Almost immediately, a hand grabbed hers. Ellie returned the squeeze with an equal amount of fear and nerves. Well, maybe not quite equal; she didn't think anyone was more nervous than Lillian Whitney.

Ellie smiled at the other girl. Although Lillian was much bigger than her, and outwardly seemed a perfectly normal person, Ellie's best friend was a bag of nerves. Her hand was almost shaking. Lillian was shy, but thoughtful, the loveliest girl you would ever meet.

"Well, you look confident." Ellie said sarcastically, hoping to get a smile out of the other girl.

Lillian grinned. "Yeah, sure."

They held back any further conversation as Ellie's dad started talking.

Ellie wasn't all that close to her dad. He was kind of distant, always working, he rarely had time for his family. It was ok, Ellie and the others had gotten used to it, over time. It wasn't that he didn't love them, he was just too busy.

The Escort took the stage, her clothes dazzling in their shininess. She spoke for a long time about the state of the Districts and the history of Panem, before finally sticking her hand in the female ball.

"And the female for District 8, is-" The Escort's face creased into a smile. "Aww, it's my favourite little girl, Ellie Cage!"

Ellie froze. She took in a lot of information at once. Her father's face blaring with red, her mother fainting in a swoon, Grant's eyes widening and Lillian's fearful gaze.

"Ellie!" Dawn couldn't help but scream her name, as her mind grappled with the fact that she was too old to volunteer.

Volunteer.

Ellie turned to Lillian. "Don't even think about it."

Pushing the stares and the thoughts to the back of her mind, Ellie marched strongly up to the stage. Her father's embrace came as a shock, but she returned it eagerly. He wordlessly held onto her hand as they turned to face the crowd.

"And the male tribute, is Tristan Hooker!"

Tristan just came up to the stage rather blankly, shaking her free hand and standing quietly, but it wasn't Tristan that Ellie was looking at.

Her heart broke at the sight of Grant's face. His best friend and his baby sister, snapped up and gone.

Ellie was hustled along to the Justice Building with Tristan by her side, and placed in a room. She waited a moment, and then another, sitting patiently, until Dawn burst through the door, hair flying wildly.

She ran forward and scooped Ellie up in her arms, hugging her close. "Mum's still out and dad and Grant are unavoidably detained by Capitol people. I managed to slip away."

Ellie hugged her sister back almost violently.

"I tried, honey, you know I did. If I could have, I would have volunteered. I just wish I could have gone instead of you." Dawn's eyes were filmed with tears as she pulled back, tucking a stray strand of Ellie's hair behind her ear.

Ellie nodded. "You're old, Dawn. Too old for me, this time."

Tears threatened to burst out from Dawn's eyes as she ducked her head, fiddling with her lovely reaping dress.

A second later a mighty ripping sound echoed through the empty room, and Dawn tied a strip of her dress around Ellie's wrist. Looking her in the eyes, she held her shoulders. "You are the most beautiful thing on the planet. I'm going to be there with you the whole time, ok? Me, and Mum and Dad, and Grant. You just make sure you come back, alright?"

A moment passed then, that Ellie would never forget. The sisters looked at each other, and they knew that Ellie wouldn't be making it back home.

_Ok, I hope you enjoyed this one! Now, my next update. Well. Hmm. I potentially could be posting District 9 in the next couple of days, but from midday Saturday to the next Sunday afternoon, I am going to be doing musical things and having fun, and not having my laptop, so there will, at some stage, be a week delay in posting. I made this one extra long to compensate, in case I don't get the next one up any time soon. _


	14. The Factory Boy

Fingers numb in the cold, Rye hugged the scaffolding with his elbows and rubbed his hands together. Finding secure footing, he swung up onto the next level, where he could reach the faulty wiring panel. Looking down to the ground, Rye sought out his friend Zaine Salisbury.

The red haired boy sniffled, wiping his dripping nose on his sleeve.

"Zaine! What am I supposed to be doing up here?" Rye yelled, rubbing his hands together again. The air was freezing, and the cold metal of the scaffolding was sending the chill deep into his bones despite the thick fingerless gloves he wore.

Zaine held up a finger, indicating that Rye should wait.

Rolling his eyes, Rye hugged his legs around the beams and blew on his hands, glancing around the factory. It was better to leave Zaine to his own devices when the genius was calculating genius things with his super-intelligent mind.

The factory was buzzing with quiet energy as workers moved around, speaking softly in voices well practiced to just make it over the constant noise of the machinery. At sixteen, Rye had been working in the factory since he was ten, running messages and delivering tools until he was old enough to work the machinery. He had been delivering goods to the border with his father since he was old enough to be of any use. Once there, stony faced peacekeepers came and collected their supplies to take them to the Capitol.

Those trips were made twice a month, by separate teams to make sure no-one knew how much was leaving the District. Weird Capitol regulations. Rye and his father Markus, were the team that did the end of month run. The rest of the time, they worked in the factory alongside everyone else.

Zaine's voice floated up to him. "You need to connect the red wire and the blue wire."

Snorting, Rye turned his attention to the nest of sliced wires that he had been ordered to fix. "Any blue wire in particular?"

"Try the broken one, Junior."

Rye grinned at his dad's words. "Thanks for that, dad."

Spotting what he assumed was the right wire, Rye pulled a tool from his belt and moved the wires close to each other. A spark passed between them, and Rye flinched back slightly, before twisting them together.

"…Wrong wire."

Growling in his throat, Rye untwisted them and grabbed another blue wire. In his haste, he didn't notice the sizzling wire ends until he forced them together. A sharp crack sounded and a jolt of pain ran up Rye's hand. Hissing through his teeth, he held his burnt hand away from the wires and slammed the panel shut. A second later, there was a rumbling noise that mounted and rose. The familiar hum of perfectly functioning machinery filled the hall, and a small cheer went up from Rye's dad, Zaine and the other workers that were on that machine.

Rye swung down from the scaffolding one handed, feeling the slight vibrations the machinery sent through the beams. Jumping down, a shock ran through his feet as he meandered over to Zaine.

"Good job, Rye." he said, pushing his glasses up his nose and sniffling again.

With his good hand, Rye clapped him on the shoulder. "You too."

Markus Sutherland, Rye's father, shouted over the most recent addition to the clanging and clinking of the factory. "Boys, you should probably leave. You have five minutes until the Reaping."

Zaine checked the clock on the computer, and almost jumped out of his skin. "He's right, we need to go."

"Lisette wanted us to pick her up beforehand." Rye added.

Smiling sadly, he walked over to his dad, holding his injured hand away from his body as Zaine shut off the computer.

"Good luck, Junior." Markus said, squishing Rye in a tender hug.

Rye said nothing. There wasn't anything to say. He just hugged his father back and caught Zaine on the way out.

They both stripped into the Reaping outfits they wore beneath their unisuits, and walked out of the Factory with solemn looks. The atmosphere of dread outside was smothering. At least in the factory, for a moment, there was nothing else but the work. Sighing, Rye shared a look with Zaine before they both turned into a shop a few blocks down from where they were.

In the crowd of women comparing dress fittings, Lisette was easy to spot due to her slightly darker complexion. Her eyes were so dark brown they seemed almost red and her hair was long and dark. They had been debating whether it was actually black or not for as long as they'd known each other.

"Lisette!" Zaine yelled, sniffling again.

The girl turned, and a smile lit up her face. She was always smiling. Apparently, there was always something to smile about, in her eyes. Optimism was a foreign concept to Rye. "Hey, guys, I'm just going to go and fix my hair."

Zaine nodded, but Rye narrowed his eyes. She was lying. A small smirk grew on his face. It was Zaine's birthday. No doubt she had some elaborate scheme all planned out.

Rye rooted around in his pockets for a moment. He smiled as he felt the rough material against his palm. Drawing it out, he presented Zaine with the small parcel.

The boy's few freckles creased in a smile as he untied the handkerchief Rye had wrapped his little toy with. The toy wasn't much of a toy, really, not for someone like Rye, but for a kid like Zaine with circuitry knowledge running infinitely through his head, a little metal man with programmable properties was a dream come true. It wasn't hard to get ahold of in their district. They were quite common to find, built from scrap metals and such from the factory. However, it did cost money to buy them, and money was one thing Zaine didn't have.

Rye melted into the background as Lisette walked back out with an impressive cake. The room erupted into cheers, and Zaine's face lit up with a hungry expression.

Rye had always felt a little uncomfortable around people he didn't know, so he just thought. Zaine had both parents and a few younger siblings, but the Salisbury family was from the poorer part of the district. He could barely afford the food to last him a week before he had found his job in the factory. It still didn't pay well, but it was enough to keep them alive.

Lisette and Rye, they came from richer families. They weren't _rich_ rich, not by a long shot, but they got by, and had enough left over to afford little luxuries.

Subconsciously, Rye fingered the black ribbon he tied back his blonde with. The ribbon was one such luxury, but it was his mother's. Or at least it had been. Feeling depression threatening to swallow him like a wave, sensing the beginnings of distance seeming to form between his mind and his body, Rye swallowed hard and nudged Zaine. "The Reaping's almost started." he murmured.

Lisette nodded, grabbing the remains of the cake with one hand and Zaine's elbow with the other. "He's right, as per usual. Come on Zany Zaine. Rye, eat."

Finding cake shoved in his mouth, Rye just shook his head and followed on as Lisette buzzed out of the room.

They were late. Very late. The spiel had already finished. The Escort had already condemned an innocent looking little girl to death, and was rooting around in the male lottery ball.

"Rye Sutherland!"

Halfway through ducking under the rope after Zaine, Rye felt the eyes of the entire district fall upon him. He quickly straightened up and allowed his mind to absorb the shock, keeping his face clear and emotionless. He was practiced at that.

Fear just began to rise in his stomach, starting with a gentle numbness spread, followed by a pain that clawed its way violently up to his chest.

Calmly as ever, he walked up to the stage with steady steps, while in his mind he was desperately trying to figure out his situation. He could kill. Couldn't he? He could die. Yes, he could do that.

_Well,_ he thought, _maybe I'll get to see mum at the end of this._

He didn't want to die.

For a moment, green-silver eyes shone at him, a reflection of his own, and his mother floated in the air above him. Her blonde hair was swept back in a widow's peak that Rye had inherited along with her eyes. She smiled, and warmth seeped in through his heart to battle the fear that ripped at his insides.

Dying could have his advantages too.

_Ok, because it's my birthday, I finished this off for you guys before I leave for my musical mega-week. _

_Hope you enjoyed it! Thank you to my reviewers from previous chapters! You guys make me happy. _


	15. Can't Buy Love

Alissa heard a soft rap on the door. Groaning, she rolled over in her bed. "What is it, Pop?"

"Time to get up, that's what it is."

Alissa's Grandfather's soft, husky voice floated through the door, followed by his scuffed footsteps as he shuffled down the hall. She could hear the smile the words were delivered with.

Grabbing the pillow, Alissa punched it into a ball, and smashed her face into it, screaming into the soft fabric. She did _not_ want to get up. Not at all. Today was Reaping day. No, she definitely didn't want to be awake. With her consciousness joining reality, a small ball of dread and fear began to form in the pit of Alissa's stomach. Growling at her pillow again, she forced it down, ignoring it with a ferocity even greater than that she could usually muster. She was _not_ scared.

Untangling herself from her feathery bedspread, Alissa stepped out of bed and onto her red rug. She squeezed her toes, feeling the expensive mat scrunch under her feet. Smiling, she whipped open her wardrobe, allowing the clothes it was busting to hold some freedom. Turning on her music, Alissa sang along, rather terribly, and fingered through her clothes, deciding which one to wear. The Reaping would be a good occasion to try out her newest outfit, she decided.

Pulling out her clothes and throwing them over her bed, Alissa sighed as she forced her wardrobe shut again. Stepping out of her silk nightgown, she pulled on tight pants and a singlet, adding another pinstriped shirt and a hat. Checking her mirror, she nodded in a satisfied way and gave herself a smoky look before leaving to strip off again and have a shower.

Forty-five minutes later, she emerged in the kitchen. Her Pop was sitting at the table, and Alissa's breakfast was already there, waiting for her.

"Morning, sweetheart."

Smiling, she walked over and kissed her grandfather on the cheek. "Morning, Pop."

A sad smile answered her as the old man went back to his book.

A comfortable silence enveloped the room, broken only by the ruffling of the pages of Daley O'Neill as he read in his purposeful manner, and Alissa's breakfast crunching in her mouth. Once her bowl was empty and she could no longer find any dregs to procrastinate with, Alissa stood up again, dumping her dirty dish and hugged her grandfather once more.

"Am I going to see you at the Reaping?" she asked softly.

Daley smiled and shook his head. "No, my love, I don't think I'll get that far today."

Nodding, Alissa gave him a kiss on the cheek. It had been a while since her granddad had been able to walk very far without aid. Down the hall to Alissa's room was just about as far as he could get.

"Your parents sent more money."

Anger rose in Alissa's gut, flushing her face with red. Her jaw firmed and her eyes narrowed. "Of course they did. Did they wish me luck for the Reaping? Give any indication that they hope I'll come home? Maybe it'll be easier for them if I go and die, because then they won't have to keep sending me money."

"Alissa, sweetheart, you know they love you."

Shaking her head, Alissa felt her pulse rise even further. "No they don't. They have their own kids to worry about."

Her pulse racing, Alissa put her back up and stalked out of the house, grabbing her sword belt from beside the door on the way out.

The cold air slapped Alissa in the face and she breathed deeply, taking it into her lungs, hoping to use the stinging chill to battle her red hot rage. At this time more than most, Alissa wished her parents cared about her. They had never been friendly with each other. They'd had Alissa and dumped her with Daley when she was only five. Sure, they visited, but they had remarried other people and had more children, and the visits were becoming less and less, while the money kept pouring in, as though it was some sort of replacement for the love they'd failed to give her.

Feeling tears fly to her eyes, Alissa growled and pulled out her sword, taking out her anger on the closest tree. The one thing the money had been good for was sword lessons. She'd been taking them since she was eight. Hitting things with a sharp object was a very good anger management technique, and god knew Alissa needed it.

After she had successfully sweated out her anger and her Reaping outfit, Alissa put her sword away and sighed, marching over to the Square.

Reaping time. Yay.

On the way, she met her best friend, well, her only friend, Sherrilyn Walsh. Sherrilyn was possibly the shiest, quietest person in the District, the complete opposite of Alissa. She always had a calm demeanour and a smile to counter Alissa's glowers and anger. Pessimism was as foreign a concept to Sherrilyn as optimism was to Alissa. They got on fantastically.

"Hey, Liss. Nothing from your parents?"

Alissa grunted non-committally, feeling a pull on her mouth, creating a little smile. Sherrilyn knew her so well.

"I thought as much. You're all sweaty. You wouldn't ruin that outfit unless you were really angry."

Nodding, Alissa sighed. She'd been doing that a lot today. She spoke as they entered the fifteen year old girl's pen. "They sent more money." She shook her head in disbelief.

Sherrilyn grimaced and gave her hand a little squeeze. "Good luck, Lissy."

Alissa squeezed back. "You too, Sherrilyn."

They quieted as the pre-Reaping speeches took place. As the day wore on, the anger in Alissa's stomach melted and morphed into fear, more and more with every word the escort spoke.

No. She was _not_ scared. No.

However much she wanted to believe it, as the escort's hand dipped into the ball, her heart beat faster and louder until she had to strain to hear the selection.

"Alissa O'Neill!"

She wished her heart had beat louder. As the district turned to look at her, the terror that had ripped through her body at her name stopped cold. Everything seemed to freeze. There was no sound.

Sherrilyn grabbed her arm and pulled her sleeve.

Alissa searched for her eyes, for her face, for the smile that had calmed her and brought her around so many times before. It was there.

They needed no words.

Drawing her strength from Sherrilyn, Alissa set her jaw and banished her fear with pure determination. She was _not _going to be beaten by the sound of her name.

Whipping her hair back, she straightened her back and marched forward strongly. She was going to kick this competition's arse.

Dawtin's eyes found Alissa in the crowd. He didn't know her, but when everyone in the District was looking at the same person, they weren't exactly hard to find. He was pleasantly surprised. She was tall and supple, with dark hair spilling out from beneath a hat and over a slightly sweat drenched, striped shirt. It was her bright, blue eyes that caught his attention. They were so full of life, full of energy and confidence, but for a moment, just for a moment, there was a vulnerability there that took him by surprise.

The flash of innocence was so unexpected, and Dawtin felt his heart go out to her.

His heart…

His heart hadn't been moved for a very long time.

Vaguely, he knew that his own face was full of longing and other revealing things, but, he only cared about _her._

She turned away from his for a second, looking to her friend, and when she turned back, her jaw set, her spine went straight as a rod, and she seemed almost, annoyed, at the Reaping. Determination reeked out of her, and he could almost feel her presence as she marched strongly up to the stage, and Dawtin drank it in like a morphling. She wasn't half intimidating, glaring the hell out of anything in her way. Her confidence was almost tangible.

Dawtin grinned as the escort's eyes widened upon seeing her expression. The man swallowed nervously as he moved over to the guy's ball, seeming to be relieved to get away from Alissa O'Neill.

The smile felt foreign on Dawtin's face as he stared at Alissa. She had crossed her arms, her amazing eyes molten. His lids slid shut, and he soaked up her presence, feeling an unfamiliar warmth spread through his limbs.

Then, several things happened at once. His mind forced a very unwanted realisation on him, and his eyes snapped open. He had fallen in love with a tribute, and with a cry of "Dawtin Princeward!", he knew he was going into the arena with her.

_Ah…yeah, so I tried something a bit different this time by adding Dawtin's perspective in as well. Good idea, horrible idea, please tell me!_


	16. Flowers

_Hi! Super quick update, for a couple of reasons, _

_Because I got reviewed and it made me happy!_

_Because there was a man here to fix the air con., and he scared me, so I hid in my computer. _

_Either way, District Eleven is online! Enjoy!_

Cedric smiled as he felt a few weights drop down beside him on the couch. "Morning, sleepyheads."

Identical grins turned up at him, beaming out of three dark skinned faces with twinkling brown eyes. Cedric couldn't help but smile back. "You've been sleeping for ages!"

His twin baby sisters, Kerril and Rilla giggled, looking at each other conspiratorially. They were only five. They didn't know what was happening today. Their innocence was to be preserved a little while longer, just like the seven year old boy that sat on Cedric's other side.

Tapp was quiet for a seven year old, and although he was skinny and short, in looks and mannerisms, he was a miniature Cedric. Tapp smiled as well, but deep in those brown eyes, he knew that today was a bad day.

Cedric ruffled his hair. "Go on, guys, go wake up Uncle Frit."

That got them moving. Uncle Frit was a fun guy, a loud man that absolutely adored his little nieces and nephews.

Sitting forward, Cedric ran his fingers through his black curls. Although he had been awake for ages, he had been slumping on the couch, watching the happenings in the house as his mother awoke and bustled into the kitchen. His father had woken, and was noting something in his book, supposedly helping his mother. Cedric's grandfathers, Aldrin and Kwaite, had woken up, had a deaf argument and promptly fallen asleep again on their chairs, while the one live grandmother and her daughter (Cedric's Auntie) had gone out to the morning markets.

As for Cedric's other siblings, his sisters Marie and Llina, 15 and 12 respectively, were awake and fighting over the bathroom, while their cousin Taye (Uncle Frit's son) was curled up in the corner, scribbling away furiously in his little notebook. Taye was going to write a book, or so everyone thought. No-one really saw him without an ink stain on his face.

Needless to say, it was never exactly quiet in their house.

Stifling a yawn, Cedric stood up and stretched, dodging Kerril and Rilla as they bolted past.

He walked over to the kitchen and pulled up a stool, looking out over the farmland. As farmers, the family had a house right between town and the fields. Cows mooed and lambs bleated just the same as they did every day.

Cedric sighed.

His mother put a bowl of porridge in front of him. "Morning, Cedric."

Cedric's mother was a kind woman, always working, always busy. She was tall, something that Cedric had inherited, but skinny as a rake. Her hair was in a constant disarray, although she vainly attempted to keep in under control with multitudes of pins.

Taking his bowl, Cedric smiled at his mother, but she'd already moved away, trying to do everything at once.

Cedric slowly spooned the hot porridge into his mouth. His mother had sweetened it with spices and honey, something she used only on very rare occasions. He supposed Reaping day counted as a special occasion.

A loud knocking came from the door.

Everyone else was busy. Chewing through another sticky mouthful, Cedric took his bowl with him to the door.

The pleasant smell of blossoms wafted through the wood. Cedric smiled, sure of who was on the doorstep.

"G'morning, Flower." he said before the door was even fully open.

A short girl with delicate blossoms woven through her dark hair smiled up at him. "Good morning, Cedric."

Most people knew Flower Paws. She was possibly the nicest girl in the world. No-one knew whether her name was actually Flower, or whether she'd inherited from the door to door flower sales she completed every week. Her parents and older brother had died when she was young, and Flower now lived with whoever would let her. She'd been shifted around a bit, but everyone in the District looked out for Flower, making sure she had somewhere to sleep. Flower was a year older than Marie, a year younger than Cedric: sixteen.

Smiling, Cedric dipped his hand into his pocket, grabbing the small amount of loose change he had and handing it over to Flower in exchange for five beautiful blossoms.

"Thank you, Cedric. Good luck, today."

The light that her visit had given was invaded by a dark cloud. The Reaping. "You too, Flower. Keep safe."

The girl smiled brightly and waved as she left.

Frowning, Cedric shut the door again. The Reaping. He shut his eyes. At least next year would be his last. Then again, it was Llina's first year today. He wouldn't not be scared of the Reaping until Rilla and Kerril were nineteen and out of danger.

Walking over to the kitchen, Cedric handed his mother a flower. She smiled gently. "Thank you, Cedric." She stopped working and hugged him hard, going onto her tip toes to kiss his forehead. "I love you, son."

Feeling tears threatening to spring out of his eyes, Cedric gave his mum a squeeze. "I love you too, Ma."

Pulling away, he spotted his youngest sisters running up the stairs. "Kerr! Rill! Come here, I have something for you!"

At the mention of a gift, the twins almost flew down the stairs.

Producing the small buds he'd bought, Cedric tucked one behind the ear of each little girl.

They gasped over the delicate, purple hue and hugged Cedric before running off again.

A small smile crept over Cedric's features, but it faded as he caught Llina's eyes. He walked over slowly, and threaded a flower through her hair. "Good luck, Llina." he whispered, holding her close. She hugged back. "I don't want to go, Cedric." she confided. "I'm scared."

The tears were sneaking back. "I know, Llina, so am I."

Llina pulled away, sniffling.

Marie was the only one left. The one that Cedric didn't want to do. He found her on the couch, staring into space and rubbing her hands together nervously. He sat beside her and handed her the final flower. She took it with trembling hands, and her eyes flooded with tears. She spun to hug Cedric almost as violently as he did.

He finally let the tears come.

It was like that every year.

As they left for the square, Cedric pulled a leaf from a tree in their backyard, like he did every year, just in case he got picked.

A short while later, Cedric stood in the seventeen year old guy's pen, quietly hanging back, fixated like everyone else, on the hand of the escort as it dipped into the male reaping bowl.

He had thought he couldn't feel worse than he had when Flower had been reaped, but when his name was called, he found out that he could.

_One more district to go, and then we're done with the Reapings, phew!_

_After that, there might be a bit of a break in my writing while I figure out how to format the next bits, but I'm on holidays, so I shouldn't be too long. _


	17. Bedhair and Boxers

Alistair Trake's eyes fluttered open, light flooding into his retina. Groaning, he squeezed them shut again, cursing at the pain and temporary blindness. It was late, if the sun was that bright, but nevertheless, he had been perfectly content asleep. What had woken him up?

Loud thumps on the door made the entire room shake.

That, he supposed.

Alistair opened his eyes again, slowly, but found the blanket twisted around him whipped away, throwing him off of the bed and onto the ground. He landed with an 'oof' and muttered several terrible, condemning things under his breath, as a hand the size of his head picked him up by the scruff of the neck. It wasn't hard, considering that Alistair, although he was sixteen, was short as hell and skinny to boot.

"Where's my money, Pipsqueak?" The voice made it sound as though each word had been dragged through a tractor engine and spewed out the exhaust.

Alistair scrubbed a hand through his spiky, black bed hair as his feet touched the ground. He turned his sleepy eyes to the man who still had a tight grip on his neck. The horrifying countenance before him was wide and covered in coal. The man had little to no teeth left and weren't particularly pleasant to look at. His eyes had some sort of goo coming out of the side and his greasy beard was scattered with things that Alistair didn't want to examine closely. Overall, he didn't make for a very pleasant viewing experience when he'd just woken up.

"Good morning, Lincoln." he began, yawning largely.

Alistair's head lolled as he was shaken. "Where's my money?"

Rubbing sleep from his eyes, Alistair wracked his brains for any clue as to what Lincoln was talking about. Lincoln was a miner, an old one. Alistair was yet to have the pleasure of working with him in the mines, but he lived in the man's flats. He rented the hovels out to people like Alistair who had no home to speak of. Rent…he'd paid the rent…mostly. Either way, that wasn't it…

"Did you think you'd get away with stealing from me, you little punk?"

What? Stealing money? "What are you talking about? I didn't steal any money?" He would have remembered something like that.

Lincoln was a man of little words. So many in so little time seemed to be too much for his brain to cope with. His infected eyes narrowed and a sound somewhat like a growl ripped out of his tractor engine throat.

"I can see that we're not going to talk much more about this right now."

He thrust upward with his knee as the thug of a man growled again. To be honest, he thought it had hurt his knee more than Lincoln, but it worked. In Lincoln's moment of surprise, he ducked out of his grip and bolted out of the door. He ran down the hallway, almost whimpering as he smelt the delicious aromas coming from someone's apartment.

Crashing and howling came from behind him. Lincoln was following.

Alistair skidded around a corner, kind of hopping on one leg until he regained his equilibrium.

Lincoln followed, but he wasn't so quick, smashing into the wall and taking a fair chunk out of it as he did. He didn't seem fazed.

A continuous flow of swear words was flying out of Alistair's mouth, which only increased as he made it to the stairwell. Peacekeepers were flooding in. District Twelve never had Peacekeepers! What was going on?

Nevertheless, Peacekeepers began to fly down the stairs after him.

Alistair spotted some coming up the stairs he was heading down. Spinning back, he spotted them coming that way too. Cursing, he turned and jumped over the railing, grabbing hold of the next one down, and the next one, and the one after that until he made it to the ground.

Bursting out of the doors and thinking he was home free, more Peacekeepers rushed him from the front. Quickly changing course, Alistair ran full pelt down an alleyway. Four white-clothed men rushed after him. Holding his breath, Alistair muttered a quick prayer that he would come out of this manoeuvre alive, and ran _up_ the wall, flipping off behind the Peacekeepers. They had a pile up at the end of the alley. In the confusion he'd created, Alistair ran back the other way, jumping up and vaulting onto the roof of the next building along.

He stopped and collapsed against a chimneystack for a moment to catch his breath. It struck him that he was still in only his bedclothes. Oh well. Boxers were good for running away in, apparently.

Money, money, money…he hadn't stolen any money, he was sure of it, but Lincoln was insisting…

Lincoln. He'd forgotten about him.

The thug roared as he saw him from below.

Alistair's eyes widened. Honestly, roaring, howling, growling, what was he going to do next? Pee on a streetlamp?

Pulling up his reserves of energy, Alistair ran across the rooftops, leaping expanses of empty space and rolling down into an alley, where he thought he'd lost them. Acting as though nothing had happened, he strolled casually out of the alleyway.

His arm was grabbed and twisted behind his back before he knew what was happening. The head Peacekeeper, Friggs, breathed in his ear. "Good show, boy."

Alistair cursed again. "Not good enough, obviously."

Friggs was around on occasion. He came and went in District Twelve, spreading fear whenever he arrived.

Friggs was quickly joined by another Peacekeeper, a tall man Alistair had tricked into running into a wall. Alistair grinned when he was glowered at. Their little trio moved along towards the Justice Building, the guards holding Alistair's arms so tightly, he was pretty sure his hands no longer had a blood supply.

They rounded a corner, and a crowd began to make themselves heard. Ah, yes, the Reaping. That would explain the extra Peacekeepers.

"What's your name, boy?" Friggs demanded, obviously trying to get the information he needed for paperwork before they got to the Justice Building.

"Alistair Trake, sir." Alistair said clearly, assuming that Friggs would not take well to backchat.

"Alistair Trake!"

"That's right."

The trio stopped.

Friggs hadn't said a word. The exclaimed "Alistair Trake" had come from someone else entirely.

The escort.

Unsure of what to do, the trio looked at each other for a moment.

This situation had surely never been come across before. Someone being arrested as their anem was called in the Reaping.

Friggs and the other Peacekeeper turned and looked at him.

Alistair shrugged. "Reaped or arrested, neither of my perspectives are particularly appealing, I have to say. Your choice, fellas."

His speech seemed to snap Friggs out of his indecision. The trio started off towards the Town Square.

Alistair grinned. "I'm glad I wore my pretty boxers, now."

Friggs grunted as he hauled Alistair into possibly the most peculiar entrance into the Reaping the world would ever see.

_Ah, yeah…I'll leave that with you guys. Reapings are done! Woohoo!_

_Everyone please review with your current favourites!_


	18. Stylists and Sheep

_Sorry I haven't updated for a little while, but I'm back at school now, so I've been a tad short on time._

_So, this is the first of the pre-games chapters. There are only going to be a couple of these chapters, told from the points of view of various characters through various stages before the games. _

_So, next chapter will be training and the one after that will probably be the interviews, and then the arena! _

_Just so you know, there are three different character's points of view in this chapter. A line across the page means a different POV and italics mean a flashback. Enjoy! Please R &R!_

Dawtin shut his eyes, giving the stylists free reign as he tried to relax. All he could think was that the train trip was finally over. It had been torture, pure torture, to be on that train and sit there and discuss strategy with his mentor and know that _she_ was just around the corner, plotting how to kill him…

Of course, his main issue was that he was going to have to kill her to survive, and he knew he couldn't do that. The more he was around her, the more deeply he fell for her, loving her attitude, her confidence, her clear, life-filled eyes. The sass she showed time and time again made him laugh, and although he didn't speak, the chuckles at her comments had slowly turned her glare into a smile. The glare she wore for him had never been as great as it had been for everyone else, but Dawtin trusted that that was because she didn't pay that much attention to him.

Alissa had tried to start a conversation only once, and when Dawtin's natural silent nature, combined with the sudden dryness of his throat had prevented him from speaking, she hadn't made another attempt.

He should be thinking about the games, about strategy, about what he was going to do for his private session, but his mind was full of her.

Dawtin smiled as a memory of the hour before popped up in his head. Him and Alissa had been rushed from the train to their stylist's prep team, and Dawtin had made a crack about a sheep costume, surprising himself when he actually said it aloud. He had been rewarded, however, by a smile and a warm laugh from Alissa, before they were dragged off to be plucked and scrubbed and dressed up and down.

His own smile mimicked hers. He held that memory close, just in case he never saw it again…

"So, your costume will be extravagant, and amazing and it will outshine all of the others!"

Dawtin tuned into his stylist, a short man whose skin was a dusky purple colour. His eyes were electric blue and his hair an almost fluoro yellow. It hurt Dawtin's eyes to look at him, and he was sure the little man was quite mad.

"Please, just don't dress me up as a sheep." he murmured, realising his mistake too late.

The stylist's crazy eyes widened and bugged nearly out of their sockets. "A sheep! It is pure genius!" He looked at Dawtin suspiciously, as though he suspected the boy of going after his job.

Dawtin sighed. The Capitol was crazy. He had only been there for an hour, and already, he was sick of it. He was almost looking forward to the games, just so he could get out of the Capitol.

The sooner, the better.

Ellie gaped at herself in the mirror, poking her naked body to make sure it was real.

She looked beautiful!

Her skin had been scrubbed and scraped until it was shiny and clean, and her hair had been washed so vigorously it was almost blonde. Make up had been applied, highlighting the natural blush in her rosy cheeks, and smoothing out the skin on her young face.

Her prep team circled her like hawks, their keen eyes searching for any inconsistency in her beauty.

Ellie was too busy not believing her eyes to notice.

"You can go and fetch your district partner. We need to see you together before we can make any decisions." Her critical Stylist ordered.

Ellie nodded and grinned, pulling on a robe as she bolted out of the room in her shiny, new skin.

Over the train ride, her and Tristan had talked. They had talked a _lot_. Ellie knew things about Tristan that she had never even suspected before the Games.

_Ellie sat in silence on the train, trying desperately to rid herself of the image of Grant's mortified face. Needless to say, it wasn't working. A presence came up and sat beside her. Ellie didn't need to look to know it was Tristan, but she did anyway. Something caught her by surprise. A macaroni necklace swung from his neck, and as she watched, he wound it around his hand, and let it go again before repeating the process. _

_He saw her looking. "My sister made it for me." he offered as way of explanation. _

_Ellie's eyes widened, Grant momentarily forgotten. She hadn't known Tristan had a sister._

_He smiled. "Her name is Lena."_

After that discussion, another had followed, and then another, and another, until it was as if Ellie had known Tristan forever. She had found out about his past, how his birth parents had abandoned him and Lena and they had been put up for adoption. He said he didn't remember them at all, but Ellie suspected that he wasn't telling the whole truth there.

Something he had said had stuck with her, though…It had come after a discussion about the odd and varied experiences Tristan had had and the upcoming Games. "Someday my life will flash before my eyes…I just want to make sure it's worth watching." The statement had a double meaning, seeing as in their current situation, it was more than likely that the entire Capitol would be watching when he died.

Ellie raced around the corner to the room Tristan had been ushered into at the start of the day. She knocked on the frame and rushed in, wanting to show off her newly created prettiness.

Tristan turned to see her come in, and a horrified look crossed his face.

Ellie backed out of the room as quickly as she had come.

Maybe she should have checked if he was fully clothed _before_ she had gone inside…

Cedric stared blankly at the Stylist that was parading in front of him, speaking in the language of cosmetics to his fawning prep team. He was standing awkwardly by in just his skin as the group observed him, arguing over aspects of his body. Cedric tried to keep up, but the limited knowledge he had acquired from his sisters in this area wasn't all that helpful.

"I can't do this with you all squabbling! I am going to think! You all can go home!" His stylist stalked out in a huff, and the prep team bounced brightly out of the other door, even as Cedric raised a hand to stop them and ask what he was supposed to be doing.

Letting his arm drop to his side, Cedric looked around the room…now what? What was he supposed to do?

He wandered idly over to the other side of the room, looking carefully over the different make up appliers on the table…That one, he was pretty sure was supposed to go on lips…

A tin of something was balanced beside the bath. It was some kind of gel substance.

Tipping the lid with a calloused finger recently softened by the prep team's ministrations, Cedric read the word 'butter'. He couldn't resist. Sticking that same finger in the orangey gel, he raised it to his face and sniffed. It smelled nice enough…Cedric's tongue flicked out to lick the stuff off of his finger.

…It tasted quite good.

Shrugging, Cedric took the tin with him as he made his way around the rest of the room.


	19. Weapon of Choice

_Ok, here we go, pre-games chapter 2; training! Yay! Ah, yes. Quick update because I want to get to the games and finish them before I go overseas, which I'm sure you guys would want as well. _

_Something you should know, if you don't know what sai are, my best advice is to google them, but failing that, think of Rafael (the red one) in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The weird fork things? They're sai. _

As soon as they were released into training, Marina's eyes flew around the room, trying to find her weapon of choice. As soon as her eyes alighted on a gleaming trident, a sigh of relief escaped her lips. Tridents, nets and throwing knives, or any combination thereof gave her a small sense of security.

She was about to march over to the trident and do something dangerous with it, but something stopped her. Marina had certain doubts about becoming a career…Sure, it would be the safest option, but she was disgusted by the idea of it, and although she was very good with her weapons, she hadn't trained specifically for the Games, which meant she didn't completely fill out the role of Career Tribute.

If she showed off her skills, she would get an invitation, no doubt, seeing as she was District Four anyway, but…then what? She could turn it down to make a point and then get on their bad side, or she could join, kill and then get killed when it was only them left…

Or she could avoid the whole thing altogether and not go for the trident.

Marina glowered at the trident, as though it were the cause of all of her problems, which it sort of was, she supposed. Then, however, her decision was made for her, as Lung Travin Sector walked up to her side.

"Arden. You're good with a trident, aren't you?"

Marina's insides screwed up into a little ball at his words, when she saw the rest of the Careers watching their exchange. Lung would know all about her superior speed and swimming abilities, and her weapons skills, from home.

Well, it looked like she becoming a career. For the time being, anyway.

Genevieve stared around the room, dread filling her stomach to its fullest. She'd been naked, painted in silver and cocooned in electrical wires the night before, but she felt more vulnerable now than she had ever been.

She was in a room filled to the brim with weaponry, none of which she could use. She felt tears come to her eyes as she contemplated her fate, but forced them back. Too late. A pair of tributes, dark skinned and warm eyed, walked over. Genevieve was pretty sure they were District 11.

The boy was large, and well muscled, but he looked too polite and kind-hearted to kill anyone. The girl had less muscle, but the compassionate smile made her reek of _nice_ness.

"Hey. You look a bit lost. Genevieve, wasn't it?" the girl said. "I'm Flower, and this is Cedric."

Genevieve nodded, and Mars stepped up beside her. Mars was only a year older than her, and he hadn't yet found a way to cope with the games. He had worn the same wide eyes and blank worry for the entire train ride.

Genevieve inhaled sharply as she realised what the pair were there to offer. "Yes, I've never even seen half of these things before." She went for the pity card. "I've rarely even been out of the house since mum died!"

It had the desired effect. Flower's brow creased with worry, and Cedric's gaze filled with pity and a protective instinct.

Genevieve studied these reactions with a pounding heart. She knew what she had to do to win the Games. Her only chance of survival.

"It's ok." Cedric soothed, kneeling down to Genny's height. "We'll protect you guys for a while. In an alliance."

Flower looked more reluctant at taking on some of the weakest tributes, but nodded her heartfelt agreement.

Nodding, something in Genny's mind clicked. She had found her weapon, and it wasn't to be found at any of the training stations.

Leaning forward, Genny gave Cedric a hug.

She was sure he cried.

Felix sighed wholeheartedly as he looked around the room. He'd been there for a few hours now, watching the other Tributes. He had done an edible plant test and some knot tying, and was now trying to convince himself to go and try out a weapon of some sort. He had one weapon he could actually use, but he wasn't about to show anyone he could wield sai effectively, so he was going to have to try and undoubtedly fail one of the others.

The contrast in the performance of various tributes was astounding. There were the careers, who were absolutely amazing, of course, and then there were a few scared looking kids, most of which seemed too young to be eligible, who could barely even pick up a weapon. They were the two ends of the spectrum, but then there were the in betweeners.

Felix had watched with everyone else when the guy from District Eleven pulled out a club and practically broke the dummy with it. The poor guy hadn't half looked surprised, but after that, a gleam came into his eyes. He knew what he could do then, and all of a sudden, he was a threat.

Sighing, Felix looked over at his district partner. She was a Basketcase back home, and a trip to Capitol hadn't changed her much. She had been sitting in the place the entire time they had #been in the training hall, just watching everyone. It was more than a little unnerving. Any attempts at conversation that Felix had made during the train ride had been met with silence. He hadn't heard her speak at all, actually.

Felix patted his pocket, where he had stashed his panpipes. He knew he wouldn't be able to play them during the Games, but it was comforting to have them there, when everything else was so strange and complicated.

He was about to make his way over to the knife throwing section, when he felt a presence appear beside him. He looked over to see a sixteen year old guy with messy black hair smile at him.

Felix's eyes narrowed. He knew this guy, remembered his Reaping form the clips. He thought everyone remembered his Reaping. Alistair Trake. Been dragged on stage by Peacekeepers looking like he'd just gotten out of bed.

Yep, that was him.

"You know how to use any of these?" he asked with a grin.

Felix shrugged and sighed, no point lying to this guy. "I've got something up my sleeve, but as a general rule, not a clue."

Alistair laughed, and Felix felt himself smiling. The fellow's good attitude was contagious.

"Well, that's better than me. I've got precisely one skill, and it can't really be trained in here."

Felix grinned. By nature, Felix was friendly, diplomatic and a bit of a fool at times, doing stupid things for fun. His public face at home was a responsible one, but with the rest of the Musicians, he was a fun-loving trouble maker, and people of that type naturally gravitated towards each other.  
"You can use it for your private thingo, I'm sure."

Alistair scoffed and buzzed his lips. "Yeah, run away from the game makers, I'm sure they'd love that."

Felix laughed mischievously, and imagined Alistair jumping around the walls of the Training Hall and landing in the Gamemaker's dinner. His laughter only grew. "So, how long do you think you're going to last in this?" he queried.

Alistair shrugged. "I'm putting my money on twelfth to die. You?"

Felix grinned. "I reckon I'll last until tenth."

"Would you care to put money on that?"

"That's not fair if you're right and I am as well! You'll be gone before you can pay up! And besides, we might miss each other's deaths."

Alistair looked over at Felix with a smile that was the most sincere Felix had seen him give. "We'd better stick together then."


	20. Death Be Damned

Shine sat patiently in her chair as Ceasar Flickerman started off her interview. She'd been told to act very sweetly for her interview, which wasn't the most difficult task she'd ever undertaken. Ceasar was a lovely guy, and it made him very easy to talk to, so Shine's mind wandered away from the interview itself and onto the Games she was going into.

As a Career, she knew she had a damn good chance of winning, but to do that, she would not only have to kill the other Careers and whoever managed to stay alive until then, but she would have to survive until she got to that point in the competition. In terms of physical threats, that wasn't a problem. Careers stuck together until the end, and although Satin, the guy from District One seemed a tad paranoid, and the District Four girl Marina seemed downright reluctant, neither would act on whatever issues they had until the end.

No, what worried Shine, was getting enough food and enough water and not eating anything poisonous. She, for one, sucked at identifying plants and what she could and couldn't eat. She just hoped that one of the others had the knowledge that she didn't.

"So, Shine, what inspired you to volunteer for these Games?" Mr Flickerman asked, bringing Shine's mind back to the present. "We all remember what happened last time a Spencer entered the Games."

Shine smiled sweetly, although anger at Ceasar's comment was flaring in her body. "I admire my older sister Moonlight, who died nine years ago in the Hunger Games. I want to follow in her footsteps, but I want to do the one thing she didn't." Shine let her comment hang, her voice hardening. "Come back a winner."

Ceasar took it in his stride. "Got to be a winner to come back at all! Ok, thank you Shine, we wish you good luck in the Games!"

Shine smiled at Ceasar's easy decreasion of the tension, complimenting him in her mind as she walked off stage, her anger disappearing as though it had never been there in the first place.

Alissa sat in the puffy dress that had been forced onto her by a smart-mouthed Stylist and glowered through the Interviews, having no planning except to not maim anyone. Some of the tributes were rather intimidating, downright crazy, like the District One girl Yonni Kotchi and Four's guy Lung. Although she tried to force her fear down, Alissa wasn't stupid enough not to be wary of the crazy Careers. The other plain crazy one was the poor lad from District Six. He was easily the most vulnerable in the competition. He was twelve, had no training in any weaponry, had made no effort to get any, didn't seem overly bright, and to top it all off, was deformed and disfigured, not even in possession of both legs. And he'd _volunteered_! He was a loony, plain and simple. However, loonies could be dangerous without meaning to be. Maybe he was worth watching out for…

However, there were other things worth noticing in the interviews. Some of the tributes had stories that shocked Alissa, and the whole thing made her even more against the Games than usual. The District Eight kids were a bit of a guilt trip. They both spoke about the boy they had left at home, the little girl's brother, the boy's best friend…it was heartbreaking.

Of the Careers, both of the District Two kids and one of the District Four kids had had siblings that had died in the Games, and so many people had siblings that couldn't last without them, so many families that would be ripped apart, because no matter how hard they fought only one person would be going back.

One of the other exceedingly depressing things, was that Alissa felt that she'd get along with a lot of the tributes. Take Megan Gallagher, for instance. She seemed very similar to Alissa in attitude towards Ceasar, and the one comment she made that Ceasar didn't demand for, was "I have to win this thing before my sister's sixth birthday." That had made Alissa laugh.

When Dawtin stepped up from beside her to take his place with the interviewer, as silent as always, Alissa couldn't help but to give him a smile of encouragement. Their experience with their Stylists and being dressed up as sheep had brought them a lot closer together, and they'd since had several conversations centred around nothing in particular, but neither could deny the attraction that both felt for the other.

Dawtin smiled gently for a moment, before his face fell back into its usual mask of blankness, completely devoid of emotion.

Alissa could almost feel it when Dawtin let the emotion fade. His face went blank and the warmth that he let out when they were alone seemed to leech out of him.

He answered all of his questions vaguely and without feeling, until the very end, when he hesitated a moment, glancing at Alissa.

Alissa's breath caught slightly and her eyes narrowed at the look in his eyes.

"I know that I may not win this, Mr Flickerman, but I'm going to try as hard as I can, because two of my friends died in the Hunger Games three years ago, and I know that they don't want me to join them." With that, he stood up and left.

Something rose in Alissa's body, something that she couldn't quite figure out. She was worried about Dawtin, about that look in his eyes, but that type of worry, she had never felt before, and she was angry at him too, for never telling him. It obviously hurt him, and there was something else…Alissa didn't want him to hurt. That wasn't normal, all of these excess emotions, things that Alissa had never felt for another person before except her Grandfather, so she decided to focus on her anger instead. Anger she was more than familiar with.

She snapped answers to every one of Ceasar's questions, determined to get out of there as fast as she could, and the interview went by in a flash. She was up and off her seat as fast as she could, storming after Dawtin. She knew where to find him.

Without knocking, Alissa threw open the door.

Dawtin was sitting on his bed, shoulders slumped, head in his hands. He looked up when Alissa walked in, and her anger melted away as soon as it had come. She immediately went over and sat by him.

They sat in silence for a while.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Dawtin shrugged. "…I couldn't…I don't tell anyone those things. Jaggis and Yuina were my best friends…"

"You just told the whole country, why not me?"

Dawtin's eyes squeezed shut, and he growled in his throat. "I don't know,"

Alissa left it for a moment. "Is that why you don't like letting anyone know how you're feeling?"

Eyes widening, Dawtin glanced at her. "No, but I'll tell you why, if you want to know."

Alissa's eyes widened in reponse, and she felt her heart rate rise. "Tell me why."

Dawtin's eyes found her. "A long time ago, I had a best friend, called Tile Rondos. We were really very close. He used to spend more time at my house than his own." A ghost of a smile crossed Dawtin's face, but his eyes stayed trained on Alissa. "We used to talk about everything, but one time, we got into an argument, about whose family was better."

The boy's voice hitched, and Alissa's heart wrenched with it.

"Such a stupid thing…" Dawtin took a moment to regain control of his breathing, but tears began to glisten in his eyes. "He yelled out that his father would go into the woods to kill an animal for their dinner. Someone overheard, and when the Peacekeepers found out…" Again, his voice wavered and cracked. When Dawtin spoke again, his voice was below even a whisper. "They were all put to death."

The tears came freely then, flowing down Dawtin Princeward's face as he relived every moment, feeling the guilt and pain as though he was in the moment all over again. It was his fault. He should never have started the argument, he should have checked if anyone was listening, he should have, he should have…

Alissa's heart tore in half at the despair and pain in Dawtin's story. "Dawtin, have you ever told anyone that before?"

The tall boy's dark hair was wilting, fighting against the remnants of the gel that had been dolloped into it for the interviews as he ran his hands through it. He shook his head slowly. "No-one. That's why I'm so…like I am…I don't want to hurt anyone else."

Alissa pulled his hands away, and gently used her thumb to wipe a tear from Dawtin's cheekbone. And then she just gave in.

Their lips met in a mess of salty tears, both of them finally giving in to the attraction they had been denying since day one.

Alissa pulled him closer, wrapping her hands around his neck.

They lived in bliss for one short moment, desperation fuelling their passion, and for the shortest amount of time, all memory of the Games, all knowledge that they would have to be fighting for their lives fled their minds.

Dawtin pulled back. "We can't do this."

All of a sudden, reality flooded back in with a snap. Anger grew in Alissa. "Why not?"

Pain flooded Dawtin's eyes. "One or both of us will be dead at the end of this. I can't fall in love with you only to lose you. I can't lose anything if it's not there in the first place."

At that thought, emptiness hollowed out Alissa's chest, but her eyes flashed with determination. "You can't die if you haven't lived first. We are doing this, Dawtin Princeward." Tears clogged up her voice, but she spoke anyway, forcing Dawtin to listen.

"We're doing it because I say so, death be damned."

_Alrighty, now that this one's done, we can get to the Games! That ought to be interesting…I don't know how soon I'm likely to get the Games up, because I'm going to be very busy for the next few weeks, and then I'm going overseas, but I'll give it a shot, and at the very least, I'll write a heap while I'm overseas and put it all up when I get back._


	21. Bloodbath

Genevieve looked around as the plate rose around her. She froze for a moment, before her mind whirred into action. Her eyes scanned the area with adrenaline fuelled speed. They were in rocky terrain, several boulders and rocks scattering the area. The ground beneath Genny's feet was sludgy and marsh-like. Behind her was a swamp, receding into a decent pool of water to her right. On her left, a piney forest extended, and opposite her, there was a giant cliff face and an area where the ground was only boulders and rocks and caves and cravasses.

The only flat area was the spot in the middle of all of the tributes, who were spread in a rough circle around the area. The Cornucopia was essentially, a really big rock. Well, a cave. A hollowed out rock, really. It was however, filled to the brim with weapons and supplies, and anything you could need in the Arena, and the cave was within arm's reach of everyone. There were knives and bows and tridents and clubs and ropes and nets, even a strange pair of fork like knives…It seemed that there were specialised weapons for each tribute.

Genevieve's mind sharpened as she searched for her 'allies'. First things first. Cedric was on the opposite side of the cave. Flower was three spots away from him, a long way away from her. Mars was only two plates away from Genevieve herself. A coil of steel secured itself in Genny's mind, and the second the plates lowered, she took off towards the boy. He saw her, eyes wide and ran over. Stupid boy.

It was only a second until the first scream erupted, along with a victorious laugh from the slightly insane District 1 girl as she took an arrow and stabbed it through the belly of Elodia Mayim, from Nine.

In the bloodbath and the rush towards the Cornucopia, no-one noticed Genny grab a knife from the floor and bury it in Mars' chest as he ran over.

His face froze in an expression of shock, and he reached down, tentatively touching the hilt of the knife in his trunk. He brought his hand up to his eyes, staring in pure shock at the blood coating his hand.

"Sorry, Mars, but it was the only way…" Genny whispered, letting the boy drop to the floor. His canon was the third to go off after Elodia's and District Twelve's Vibbon Slarter.

A second later, a scream and a canon blast followed each other, marking the passing of District Six's Hanna Ratz.

About to run over to Cedric, Genny felt a hand on her shoulder, roughly wrenching her backwards.

Genny fell to the ground, the threat of Megan's knives obvious.

"Kid, you are sick! I know these whole Games are sadistic, but that was just…" Megan Gallagher hissed, her eyes wide as she stopped on her way to make off with her set of knives and a bag of supplies.

Genny's eyes widened. Why hadn't she thought of the girl between her and Mars? She had seen it all…that could ruin her plan, but Genevieve was in no position to fight her and win.

It was obvious Megan didn't want to be there, she wanted to run off into the woods, away from the bloodbath, and was debating whether or not to kill the young girl.

Genny employed the only defence available to her. She cried. And begged. "Please, I know, but I just want to go home." she sobbed.

Megan glanced over to her District partner, who was warding off one of the Careers desperately. She looked over the younger girl despairingly and sighed. "You better thank your lucky stars I have younger sisters, kid. Run. Go on. Run!"

Genevieve did as she was told, scrambling to her feet and bolting towards her District 11 allies.

Felix ran at the Cornucopia, emitting a strange squeak as he dodged an arrow, ducking as he hurtled towards his sai. He could see them, bouncing beneath the thundering feet of various fighting kids. His path kept being blocked and altered as he continued to dodge and weave through the vicious battle.

He had watched with a gape wrenching his jaw open as Alistair ran up the back of the Cornucopia, swinging inside and grabbing a backpack, before anyone else had even moved from their plate. Unfortunately, Felix didn't have the same speed or grace as Ali.

Alistair squawked and yelled like crazy as he dodged a swing from Lung, the District Four guy. He let himself fall to the ground and rolled out of harm's way, before scrabbling to his feet and sprinting out of the way. He skidded and backtracked, using the Cornucopia and his amazing acrobatic skills to keep himself relatively safe as he escaped the bloodbath.

Felix cursed loudly as he was knocked to the ground by a hulking seventeen year old Career that was bearing down on him, followed closely by Rye Sutherland, a lad who was swinging an axe rather expertly.

For the moment, however, the career was ignoring Rye, focussing, much like Felix, on the club flying at him from above.

A glint of silver caught Felix's eye as he scrambled backwards. Grinning, he leapt to his feet, catching his sai as they flew towards him, and trapped the career's wrist, forcing him to let go of the club in his dangerous hand. The boy roared in anger as Felix expertly manoeuvred the boy's wrists behind his back, wondering what to do with him.

His predicament was proved to be of no consequence, as Rye bellowed, "Spin him around!"

Doing as he had been bid, Felix locked his sai together behind the larger boy's back, forcing his wrists together, and spun him around just in time to catch Rye's axe in the career's muscled chest.

The canon went off almost immediately, but Felix didn't quite register it. His world had frozen the minute Rye's axe buried itself in Connor Rype's heart. He had felt the tremendous blow through the larger boy's body, and the weight of his muscular form as he dropped, a dead weight in his arms. Dead weight…he had killed someone. He had smothered the spark of life in someone's eyes, stilled a beating heart, halted the breath that flowed through his lungs. He had not struck the killing blow, but he was as responsible for Connor Rype's death as much as Rye Sutherland, and one look at the District Nine boy's stricken face and wide eyes told him that he felt the very same things. An unspeakable thing had passed and now bound them…

"Run, run, run, run, run!" Alistair came flying past with about five backpacks thumping against his body, in the air more often that he was on the ground, and Felix broke his gaze with Rye Sutherland, but both of them followed Ali out of the Bloodbath.

Learoy ran as fast as he could with only one and a half lower limbs. Over the years, he had built up some speed, although it was terribly difficult without his crutch. His only plan was to run into the forest and make himself a crutch or something similar for a substitute. And maybe not die for a while. Sure, he didn't plan on seeing the end of this competition, but he _did _plan on making his death important.

As he hobbled away, he wove unsteadily around a pair of girls, one only 12, the other older, who were engaged in a vicious sword fight. He recognised them as Alissa O'Neill and Ellie Cage, Districts 10 and 8 respectively. Learoy had an uncanny memory for faces and facts, for all the good it would do him in the Arena.

Sighing, he ran for the forest as Ellie cut Alissa's arm and bolted, much to the older girl's annoyance, as she dodged any further attacks and disengaged, bounding towards her district partner.

Out of any close danger, Learoy slowed slightly to catch his breath, and stumbled almost immediately, catching himself on a particularly large boulder.

A soft pinging sound came from the rock.

His functional eyebrow shot to his hairline and he touched the boulder again, getting the same result. A line glowed across the boulder, almost like a seam, or a hinge…Learoy hurriedly began to try and open the rock.

Out of the corner of his eye, the cripple spotted Katrina Oakson, Disctrict 7, touch another boulder just like his, only a few metres away. It pinged a bit higher.

The intelligent pair's eyes lit up and they ran around, figuring out the code to open the boulders.

They were most of the way through when another person made a break for the forest, District Four, Marina Arden. The girl froze at the sight of them running around slapping the rocks, but understood as soon as the first rock cracked open, revealing a backpack full of supplies. Katrina took it and bolted.

Learoy let his breath escape in a sigh. He didn't expect to die this early on…

"Hey, kid, you tell me where to push, and we'll open up another few rocks, alright?"

A grin cracked Learoy's broken face and he nodded, pointing at the farthest boulder.

Marina ran over, slapping each rock as he pointed at them.

"What if anyone else comes?" he yelled.

Marina gave him an exasperated look. "I'll deal with them, you just focus on the glowing boulders, ok?"

They had reaped the innards of three more boulders before anyone else showed up. Marina threw a knife with a fair amount of precision in the direction of the career pack as they neared, and the group halted for a while. "Come on, kid, we've got to scram."

Learoy didn't need telling twice, as he took his supplies and ran into the forest with Marina by his side, wondering how on earth he had managed to get a Career for an ally.

_Whew! Well, there you go, chapter one of the Arena! I'm sorry if it's a bit confusing, but it should all make sense in a chapter. Loose ends will always be tied up! Promise!_

_Now, I know what I'm doing up to a certain extent now, and I'm going to try and write a lot this weekend. _

_By the by, Glimmer: I'm going for three weeks. _

_Please R&R!_


	22. Discussions

_Ok, small warnings, very minor swearing, just thought I might warn you, for this is a generally cuss free fic. _

_Small warning two: There is a bit of musical content in the last section. It is mainly for the amusement of musicians, particularly a certain violinist -that ought to be cramming on general knowledge instead of reading this- but it should work just as well for the musically illiterate. _

Katrina sat comfortably in the boughs of a tree, secreted away in its leafy branches. She was finding the Games a lot easier than she thought they would be, at this stage at least. So far, she'd run out of the Cornucopia, received a backpack from some weird, glowing rocks and disappeared into the depths of the forest. That was about it. She hadn't come across any other contestants apart from the Cripple she had opened the glowing rocks with, and they were a day into the contest. Overall, she was doing pretty well.

Once she was far enough away to be relatively out of danger, she had climbed her tree and rummaged through her backpack as quickly as possible, finding it almost full of water and a blow dart. How appropriate.

The gear had set her up to sit in her tree and watch as first the District Five people, and then her own District partner and his allies had bolted past with a large enough amount of backpacks and weapons to be dangerous. A couple of hours later, the District Ten group had passed through, the girl striding ahead with an angry look, the boy glowering in the background, but trudging along behind her just the same.

It had been another hour since Ten had passed beneath her, noticing her as little as the other tributes had.

Katrina slowly climbed down her tree, taking her backpack with her. If she needed to run, she wouldn't want to leave her supplies up there. Very cautiously, she began to pace the foreign area, feeling out the ground until she could walk soundlessly. Once her usual stealth was guaranteed, she delved further into the forest, examining each tree and plant with the keen eye of practice. Collecting berries and branches, she piled them all into her bag, carefully keeping an inventory in her mind as she went along.

_Crack_.

Katrina froze.

_Crack, crack…snap!_

She was up a tree and perfectly still and invisible long before the Career pack thundered into her clearing.

Lung slashed at the plants and trees that were in his path, and the ones that weren't with a giant blade that fit no description other than big and sharp.

"Stupid bitch, why'd she leave the Pack?" Yonni Kotchi growled as she followed on, her eyes narrowed and sharp.

Satin rolled his eyes as he trailed into the clearing, idly spinning a knife over his left hand and walking over to lean against a tree. He could almost hear Sagathy beside him, an exasperated look on her face. "Cool it, Calliope, just stay with them a while longer…"

"Leave Marina alone, Marina. It was her choice to leave the Pack, and it would have taken a lot of courage! I wish I was strong enough to act on my convictions like that." Shine replied, defending Marina despite the fact that she had abandoned the alliance.

Satin raised his eyebrows in disbelief. That girl was just unbelievably…_nice._ He didn't think he had heard her utter a negative word about anything or anyone.

"Shut your mouth, Spencer." Yonni hissed venomously.

The loss of Connor so early in the competition had shaken them all, and the betrayal of Marina had brought out the hatred in all of them. Tension crackled in the air.

"So, Satin, I've been wondering, where'd you get that scar?" Shine asked, shocking Satin out of his reverie. "The one on your arm?"

Satin could sense the need in her voice, as she tried to defuse the situation, get everyone back on track as a group. Sighing inwardly, he supposed he ought to help her out if they were to keep from killing each other. Somehow, he doubted that they would be a very good pack if they were going to kill each other before anyone else. If they were, Lung would be the first one to go, Satin decided, spinning his knife with a grin.

"I work in a factory back home. I was handling one of the machines one day and the arm came down and grabbed my leg instead of the metal." He could see he had distracted everyone. The electricity in the air had faded and Shine looked notably relieved. Satin grinned.

"It was going to pull my leg off. I did a bit of manoeuvring, and ended up with the choice, a scar, or a distinct loss of limb. Obviously, I went for the former." he finished smoothly, remembering that day. That was the day he had met Sagathy, when the machinery had taken a chunk out of his arm and he had ended up stranded in the hospital, in the care of one Sagathy Ashcourt.

"We don't have any supplies. We've got weapons, and that's it. We need to find something to eat and drink. We can plunder some other Tribute." Lung's husky voice said in an emotionless monotone.

Satin spun his knife around savagely. "Want to say that any louder, Hulk?" he hissed. "Come on, let's go hunting."

The group thundered out of the other side of the clearing.

A plan immediately began to form in Katrina's mind as the Career Pack left.

She couldn't believe her luck.

Learoy sat in a small clearing on some rocks, his leg and a half pulled up to his chest while Marina sat on a rock further away, shielded form view by the trees, her keen eyes on the distance, her trident in her fist.

"So, Hopalong, how's your shoulder?" she asked, seeming more relaxed than she had been when they had taken up their position. Learoy had practically destroyed his shoulder while using his crutch to run through the forest, and he had taken a knife for Marina courtesy of the Career Pack as they made their escape.

"It's kind of numb now." he lied, not wanting her to worry. He knew she felt guilty for him taking a knife destined for her, and besides, he had endured worse.

Marina nodded, almost to herself, and her shoulders lost some tension as she relaxed. "I'm glad to hear that, but you shouldn't have taken it in the first place."

Learoy smiled. "What, like it's going to slow me down any more than my current issues."

Marina growled, but couldn't exactly deny it.

There was a moment of silence, but Learoy knew that there was a question coming.

"Learoy, why did you volunteer for that kid?" Marina whispered.

The use of his actual name told Learoy that the question required an actual answer.

He shrugged, wincing as it set his shoulder on fire. "He had a lot more to lose than me."

Marina cast him a look, curious, but too scared to ask.

"My family was lost in a fire a long time ago. That's where all this came from." he said, gesturing at his disfigured body. "I got banned from going to school, because I scared the other children, and basically got confined to the house. My life kind of got put on hold."

A grimace painted Marina's face as she tried to imagine the pain of losing your family, your body and your livelihood in one hit.

"I didn't have a life; no education, no friends, nothing except pretty much waiting to die…the other kid has a family that loved him, he had an education, a life to live and livelihood to look forward to. It wouldn't have been fair for me to let him die, when I'm practically already dead."

Marina said nothing, but Learoy saw the tears staining her cheeks.

Felix sat on a rock, spreading out the supplies from one of the many bags of supplies that Alistair had pilfered. His bag was full of food, which was pretty brilliant.

Rye, who sat with his gigantic axe resting casually on the tree trunk beside him, had a bag full of water, sleeping bags and a tarp.

Alistair had two smaller bags and was humming happily as he rummaged through his piles of flint and rope and other such useful items.

"Tailor's Trill?" Felix asked, his deft fingers halting in their sorting.

Alistair grinned at him. "Oh, good on you, Seven!" he crowed.

Backpacks and supplies forgotten, Felix scooted closer to the loony District Twelve, as they both sang the song, harmony blossoming from their mouths.

"Whoah, hold on, _sixths_?" Alistair broke off, his voice emphatic. "Who sings in sixths?" he demanded, his voice abnormally high pitched.

"You don't sing in sixths?" Felix replied, confused.

Alistair almost looked offended. "No! Of course not! We sing in thirds! Or fifths! Never sixths."

"Sixths are definitely the best harmony, challenged only by fourths."

Alistair gave him a strange look. "Your District is weird. Besides, the best interval is definitely an octave."

Felix gave him a look, one eyebrow cocked. "You try violin, and then we'll see whether you'll give the same answer."

"_What in the name of god are you two talking about?"_

Felix and Alistair's shocked gazes fixed on Rye, who looked absolutely clueless.

"Muso things." Felix started.

"You wouldn't understand." Alistair finished.

Rye looked from one to the other, his mouth flapping as he tried to find the words or the expression. He settled on disgusted.

A second later, the musicians burst into laughter, and try though he might, Rye couldn't help but join in.

_Sorry if that was slightly lacking in death, but don't worry, you'll get more than your fill of blood and gore in the next few chapters. _

_Now, the most important thing is that my epically awesome and amazing friend Sophie is going in for her violin exam tomorrow, and I want to wish her luck on fanficiton, cause I know she'll see it._

_**Sophielein! Good luck! You play your ninths/sevenths amazingly!**_


	23. Innocence

Flower smiled as she watched Cedric gently stroke the leaf he had brought into the arena. She recognised it from his backyard. The Roberts family had always had money for Flower when she came around, and she had spent a few nights at their house over the years. Cedric had always been friendly to her, and she loved the way he acted towards his siblings, so loving and kind and protective. Over the years, Flower had started to feel almost like a sister to Cedric.

A thick club was beside Cedric, the boy hesitant to use his new found power, but too scared not to. He would protect her and Genny as long as he could, Flower knew. His interview had been rather brief, the general idea summed up in one comment. 'I'll gladly give my life for the sake of another.' he'd begun. 'Not to say I won't be trying.'

Flower smiled at the memory. Her own interview had gone by in a whirl, and she didn't really remember much of it…

"Do we have any food?" Genny's quavering voice asked softly.

After running for an inordinate amount of time, the group had stopped, only to find the Career Pack coming towards them. They'd continued through the forest, and stopped again, but had no idea whether they'd lost them or not, resulting in a restless night spent on the forest floor.

"I'm sorry, Genny, we don't." Flower replied gently. The twelve year old was so small, her knees hugged to her chest, her wide eyes so scared. Her District partner had died in the Bloodbath, and she had seen it before she'd managed to run away, and this was the first opportunity she'd had to stop and think about it. Needless to say, she wasn't coping well.

Cedric stood up and hefted his club, tucking his leaf back inside his shirt. "I'll go hunting." he said in his gruff voice. His farmer's feet weren't made for stealth, but he didn't have much of a choice but to make do.

Genny nodded mutely and Cedric left, leaving the girls alone.

Rio sat with his back to the cliff face behind him. The entire landscape was rocky, and there was no flat ground to speak of for miles around. Rio had run with Megan through the forest, and out the other side, travelling as far away from everyone else as possible in as little time as they could.

They'd made their little camp with the single backpack they'd managed to get between them. Well, that Rio had got. Megan had gone for her knives and Rio's ropes and trap supplies, while he had run for a backpack.

They hadn't started off as allies, but after a while, a mutual need for survival had pushed them together, and they were quite effective as a team. With a decent amount of water and a good hiding place, they weren't overly concerned about an immediate attack, and now sat separately, both of them thinking about home.

Megan had a picture of her family that she was constantly looking at, and now was no different. She sat in the rocks a little way away, on a higher level, and Rio felt a pang of pain in his chest as he heard a small sniffle.

Frowning, he walked over hesitantly and sat beside her, gently reaching out to put a hand on the picture so he could see it.

Megan let him.

As well as Megan herself, there were two little girls and a boy-who was the spitting image of his oldest sister-grinning out of the picture.

Rio smiled slightly.

"They're names are Rhia, Lizzie and Ferrid."

Running his thumb over the picture, Rio pushed it back towards Megan. "They look very happy."

There was a moment of silence. "They are."

Before the conversation could develop any further, the back of Rio's neck prickled. Immediately, he spun around, leaping to his feet. What he saw shocked him to no end.

"Ah, Megan, you might want to see this."

Curious, the girl joined him, and gaped similarly at the scene unfolding before them.

Rocks and dirt were slowly raising into the air for a solid hundred metres in front of them. It was as though gravity had ceased to exist for this square of space.

As they watched, the rocks at the back began to fall, and the ones closer to them that hadn't yet moved started to float. The anti-gravity field was moving towards them.

Before they could respond, the pair felt their bodies lighten, and lift into the air.

Rio's eyes were wide as he stared at the ground floating away from him. The whole process was very slow, there were no harsh movements, even when he flicked a rock. It was like he was in a giant bowl of honey, or jelly.

"Ah, should we be worried?" he asked.

Megan shrugged. "I don't think so. This doesn't seem to be very dangerous, unless someone comes and finds us like this, which is doubtful."

Wincing at the thought of someone coming and finding them suspended in the air, helpless. "So what do we do?"

"We wait, I guess."

They watched rocks float past them for a while.

Rio grinned. "Well, this would've been easier than trying to climb a fence to get apples."

"How are you coping, Genny? Without Mars?" she asked softly.

Almost immediately, tears began to stream down the twelve year old's face. "Not g-good." she sobbed.

Biting her lip, Flower immediately felt terrible for asking. She shouldn't have mentioned Mars! Dancing over, she wrapped her arms around the girl. "I'm sorry I said anything, Genny. You shouldn't even be in this, honey. Not you. Twelve is too young, too innocent."

A knife slid into Flower's chest.

A petite gasp escaped the District 11 girl's mouth as she fell backward, her eyes wide in surprise.

Genny let her slide to the floor, before pulling out the knife putting her hand over the orphan's mouth. "Sorry, Flower, but I can't have you warning Cedric if I'm going to get home. And if this is a 'Career' attack, you wouldn't get away with one wound. I need to be realistic."

Genny buried the knife in Flower's defenceless body again and again, almost enjoying the feeling of her breath fading under her hand.

She moved the mutilated corpse, allowing blood to soak some of her clothes to back up her story and forced tears to her eyes, screaming loudly. By the time Cedric got back, she would be a rattled, emotional wreck.

Flower's body would still be warm.


	24. The Martyr

Rye's heart thumped as he sat on a rock with Felix and Alistair. He was having a hard time in the alliance.

"Food time! I'm hungry!" Alistair called.

Felix gave him a look. "It's not food time, just cause you're hungry."

Alistair looked confused.

"It's food time cause I'm hungry too!"

Alistair groaned as he threw food at Felix and Rye. "That was terrible, my friend. Truly terrible."

Rye caught the bit of stringy meat that was flying towards him. The meat was from some strange animal they'd caught and cooked the night before, but it was that type of thing that was making it hard for Rye to stay in the alliance. Felix and Alistair were too funny, and too friendly. He liked them too much, and he knew that he couldn't kill them. He was having too hard a time over killing Connor, and if he felt this bad about killing a Career, how would he cope with it if he killed his friends?

No!

They weren't his friends. They couldn't be his friends.

Growling under his breath, Rye took a chunk out of his meat.

He shouldn't have thought about Connor. He'd almost managed to forget him for a while, almost been able to banish the image of his stricken face, of his body slumping in Felix's arms as Rye's own axe burrowed into his chest.

He had felt the shock up his arms, through his legs and the ground, and then an almighty pang of pain in his own chest, there to mimic what Connor must have felt because of him, and remind him that he had stolen his life.

That pain hadn't gone away and doubled with the combined energy of shame, guilt and fear to create a burning hole in Rye's chest that throbbed with constant blame. Images of Connor haunted him, branded onto his eyeballs, always waiting for him to close his eyes so he could see him again, relive the memory over and over again.

He couldn't do that Felix and Alistair.

On impulse, Rye got to his feet, threw some stuff into his backpack and grabbed his axe. "Sorry, lads. I'm leaving."

Shock painted Alistair's face, but Felix's shone with understanding. He nodded, and scooped up some of the meat, offering it to Rye. "Here, take this. Good luck." he said in a small voice that rang with maturity.

Rye reached out to take the meat, and offered a smile in return, his gaze lingering on Felix. He could see Connor there, too, lurking behind his eyes to haunt the younger boy whenever he went to go to sleep.

He knew.

"Thank you. Good luck."

With that, he turned on his heel and left.

Marina trudged walked slightly ahead of Learoy, conscious not to go too fast for the cripple to keep up, looking through the forested area. They had been in the rocks previously, but Marina was too uncomfortable staying still; she needed to move.

They stopped every so often to give Learoy and his bandaged shoulder a rest, but mainly tried to just keep moving, around the rocks and into the outskirts of the forest.

Maybe the forest would be easier for Learoy than the rocks. Just thinking about the kid caused her stomach to sink. Learoy was young, and smart, his heart so unbelievably big. He was practically using the Games as a big, elaborate suicide/rescue mission for the kid he'd volunteered for. He made Marina too nervous to be comfortable. He had too big a heart to let Marina take a knife, and she just knew that given the opportunity, he would sacrifice much more than his shoulder for her.

"Well, Hopalong, how are you getting along?" she asked, quickly skipping ahead through the trees to check the paths ahead.

They had both heard the cannon earlier in the day, and Marina still felt the chills running up and down her spine as she remembered the hovercraft picking up a mangled body from the trees. That was why they had moved on. As disturbing as it was, whoever had killed that tribute wouldn't remain in the same place, and no-one else would be going there, so they were going to set up camp at the site of the death in the hope that no-one else would be around.

Learoy smiled. Hopalong had become his nickname and stuck. "I'm fine. Are you alright?" he asked back.

Marina shrugged. "I'm a little hungry, but I'm coping." She was rewarded for her comment with a laugh from the cripple trailing behind her.

"You're always hungry."

Feeling a grin spread over her face, Marina sent back, "Says the guy that never stops eating berries."

The pair enjoyed their easy banter, hiding their doubts and fears behind the light words.

A loud crack echoed behind them.

"I see you, Marina! You're going to wish you were never born!" Yonni Kotchi's sharp voice screeched.

Marina stumbled backwards, running into Learoy and grabbing his arm.

They could hear the pack running towards them.

All of a sudden, Marina being whacked with a crutch.

"Run." Learoy ordered, prodding her away.

Marina froze in shock and uncertainty. "Hopalong…"

"Run!" His voice was stronger, more commanding, and he shoved her away bodily, falling to the ground in the process.

Marina stumbled back into a tree, and their eyes met.

"Run…" he whispered, barely audibly.

It was what Marina saw in the brave martyr's face that made her run at him, and grab his hand. "Look me up in the afterlife, Hopalong." She turned tail and ran, tears flying from her eyes.

Learoy was ready, he was more than ready, he was happy to die. Contentedness glowed from his face as he watched her leave and spun to face the Careers, just as she made it out of the clearing.

Throwing a crutch at the hulkish boy at the front was enough to distract them, but it wasn't him that spoke, it was the boy from District One, who looked at him curiously.

"I don't understand you, cripple. You volunteer for the Games that you will obviously never win, and then you sacrifice yourself to save a perfect stranger." his soft voice stated curiously.

Learoy smiled. "You yourself volunteered, and you don't strike me as the one to do so out of bloodlust. Just think about it."

"You fucking bastard, Cripple! You threw a crutch at me!" Lung finally spluttered.

Learoy laughed.

Satin smiled slightly at his mirth, cocking his head to the side.

Lung's blade hacked his head clean off, and it rolled to a stop, Learoy's laughter still painted on his cold face.

"I'm sorry, boy, you are the most courageous person I know." Shine praised. "Well, knew."

"Shut up! He was an idiot, now come on! He didn't have anything useful, and I need to kill that traitorous bitch!" Yonni demanded, barging on through the forest with Lung right with her.

Shine quickly followed on, but Satin stopped to gently close Learoy's eyes as he passed.

Felix cursed loudly as he ran, dodging rocks ranging from boulders to pebbles, with much less skill than Alistair, who was almost flying through the trees with all of his usual skill at running, held back only by Felix's blundering feet.

After Rye had left, the duo had moved on from the spot, trying to see what was on the other side of the forest. As it turned out, that had been a bad move, because they had run into the Career pack only a couple of hours later, and something hadn't half pissed them off. A good number of knives had already thunked into several rocks around the duo's heads as they ran.

Felix yelped as he was thrown to the side by Alistair. He tumbled down a hill and behind a giant jumble of boulders, where it was impossible for the Careers to see him, or be bothered to look for him.

About to run back up and grab Alistair, something stopped him…Ali could run faster and more outrageously without him there to hold him back. Felix just hoped that he would stay alive long enough to meet up again at the end.

Alistair picked up his pace as soon as Felix disappeared from view and the Careers rounded the corner, leaping on top of a rock. He made a path that wove stuck to the edge, where the boulders fell away to a giant drop off the cliff on the left, and moved steadily upwards, making it hard for the Careers to catch up.

He could see the cliff face stopping up ahead. That was an issue. Ali's advantage of being able to run anywhere didn't extend to thin air.

Grimacing, he zig zagged over several larger boulders far above the Career's head, right on the edge of the yelping as a rock hit his head. Wait, a rock? Surely they hadn't sunk to throwing rocks at him. Looking to his left, Alistair was more than surprised to see ruddy great boulders _hovering_ in the air.

Ten metres to the end of solid ground.

Throwing his hand out to his left, Ali felt it suddenly become weightless. He pulled it back in.

Five metres, and the Careers were catching up.

Desperately, Ali looked around for any other escape. In front of him was a deadly drop, behind him and to his left were deadly Tributes, and to his left was a normally deadly drop that appeared to contain floating rocks.

Hoping beyond hope that more than rocks would float in the weightless air, Alistair threw himself off the cliff.

"Well that took all the fun out of it." Yonni sighed.

For a moment, the Careers stood awkwardly on top of the cliff, but then began to make their way back down to ground level.

Meanwhile, Alistair held in raucous laughter as he swam backstroke through the anti-gravity field.

_Just cause I realised that that last section could be a little confusing, basically, Alistair is chased up a cliff by the careers, and appears to jump off the edge, but is really saved by the anti-grav, introduced last chapter. _


	25. Claustrophobia

Breathing out in a huff, Ellie half-heartedly threw a stick into the marsh. The rock she was sitting on kept her on dry land, a good metre away from the sticky, muddy surface of the water, and the stick bobbed on the ripples it had created with its landing. "Tristan!"

There was no reply.

"Tristan Hooker!"

A string of small rodent carcasses around his neck, Tristan emerged from the edge of the woods with a glower on his face. "What, Ellie?"

Smiling at his return, Ellie jumped down off her rock.

Surprised by the splash, Ellie looked down as a surge of cold water rushed into her shoes. She looked around. What had been dry land but a minutes before, was now squelchy and almost ankle deep in mud…

Exchanging a look with Tristan, Ellie saw her own fear mirrored in his dark gaze.

The water was rising.

Cedric watched on as coughs wracked Genny's small body. But a few hours earlier, he would have been sick with worry over the little girl, but right then, he wasn't so sure…

Half a day ago, Flower had been murdered by careers. Or so he had thought. The body was appropriately mangled, and it seemed that a few of the Pack were adept with knives, but there was something that had been nagging him…something about it wasn't right.

Flower had been alone with Genny. Sure, she would have died before letting Genny get hurt, but how did Genny get away without a scratch? And why were there so signs of a scuffle?

He had convinced himself he wasn't thinking straight, because of his grief for Flower's death, but only an hour later, a canon had gone off in the spot where Flower had died. The careers hadn't been there when he got there…had they been there at all, they would have been long gone.

And Genny…something was up with her as well. Something about her made his hackles rise, gave him goosebumps, and having as many younger sisters as him, he had long since learnt to recognise crocodile tears…and her tears were definitely of that description.

Shaking his head with a low grunt, Cedric spun around on his behind so he was facing away from Genny and her shiny cheeks. He was making too much of this. Pretending to rummage through his bag, he didn't see the piercing glare that followed his muscular form. He didn't see, and so he didn't suspect that Genny would produce a knife until it neatly slit his throat from behind.

Alissa panted desperately as she ran down the hill. She could hear the careers behind her, thundering down the rocky hill. The terrain she was in was _full_ of _rocks_. All sizes, all shapes.

Everywhere you looked, there were rocks that looked just like a human, until you ran closer and saw them for what they really were. Finding a real human in amongst this mess was near impossible, which was both a curse and blessing for Alissa.

On the one hand, it protected her from the view of the careers, but on the other hand, it hid Dawtin from her better than if he had been in full camouflage.

Hearing the heavy footsteps of the Pack closing in behind her, she held in a gasp and kept running, ducking behind rocks and weaving as silently as she could to the densest area of the towers of stone, where the ground flattened out.

She flew sideways and thumped into something solid. A hand clamped itself firmly over her mouth, and the other stroked her hair gently.

Alissa's thumping heart quieted, and her fear dissipated. It was Dawtin. Just Dawtin. The hand on her mouth moved to her hand, and together, they moved slowly and stealthily.

Dawtin slunk through the overgrown stalagmites, slowly tugging her along with him. They were headed towards a secluded cave, at the bottom of the cliff face.

The fear that had faded before now stabbed Alissa in the chest with full strength. She froze and gasped, Dawtin's hand sliding from hers as his slow momentum carried him forward.

Alissa's eyes were wide enough for the whites to be seen all around, and she was visibly trembling.

The cave was small, and dark. They would have to squeeze in through the front to get in.

Dawtin swore quietly, threw the bags inside and returned for Alissa, who was simply paralysed with fear.

He put his hands on either side of her face, but her gaze carried on past him to the miniscule cave entrance.

Leaning in close, he hugged her close to his chest, whispering, "Alissa, what's wrong?"

It took a moment, but after swallowing several times, a broken reply returned directly into Dawtin's ear. "I'm claustrophobic. I can't go in there."

Dawtin was astounded. Alissa, who seemed to have no flaws or feared, who never needed to be helped, couldn't walk into a cave, even with the threat of the Career Pack urging her on.

Pulling away, Dawtin cast a smile on his beautiful companion. Tears were slowly trickling down her face, and she seemed to have overcome her paralysation in favour of shame. Tilting her chin up gently, Dawtin kissed away the tears that had already made it to her cheeks, earning a surprised look from their creator.

She sobbed angrily. "What? You surprised that I'm not a perfect prissy angel, with absolutely no flaws?" Her words defied him, but her tone spoke of pain and regret.

Shocked, Dawtin looked her in the eye. As always, she glared right back, no sign of backing down. That only made his smile grow. "You will never be anything but perfect to me." he promised.

That shut her up. Alissa's mouth flapped, but no sound came out. She could almost feel his words, his tone, his smile wrapping up her fear and casting it away, protecting her from its vicious bite. All of a sudden, the cave didn't seem threatening at all.

Shaking off his hands, Alissa marched into the cave, breathing in as she squeezed through the crack of an entrance. Inside, it wasn't nearly as small as she had thought it would be, and the whole thing was actually rather dry and comforting, as the Arena went.

A tremendous rumbling made the entire cave shake, the whole mountain seeming to want to crash down over her head. She let loose a scream that she immediately muffled with her sleeve.

Was this her phobia playing tricks with her mind? Or was it real?

Doubts flew in circles through her mind as the rockslide finally came to an end. Was it just in her mind, or had it been real?

"Alissa…" a voice groaned.

Immediately, she flew back to the entrance of the cave, where Dawtin was lying, buried beneath a pile of rocks. Blood seeped sluggishly out from underneath them. His blood.

Not caring to bite off her gasp this time, Alissa immediately dragged him out from his prison of stone.

His legs were mangled, his chest crushed and the bones were sticking out everywhere in his left arm, but his smile had endured. "It's a good thing you got over the claustrophobia that quickly. I may need some help to get into the cave." he laughed and spat out a globule of blood.

Alissa allowed herself to cry. He wasn't going to make it, and he knew it just as well as she.


	26. The Mutt

Megan and Rio had been walking for a while now, around the edge of the cliff face, until they had found a small rivulet of water, that sure as hell hadn't been there the day before. Curious, they were following it, watching as it turned into a bigger and bigger stream, sending more and more little rivulets off into the rocks. Water cascaded down the boulders in places, creating little waterfalls. The whole scene was actually rather pretty, and the water was good. The fact that it seemed to be swelling every minute was irrelevant. It had been only a couple of days that they had been following the stream, and on this, the fourth day, it had finally become deep enough for them to not be able to make it through the middle without taking their feet off the ground. It had finally become a swimmable river, widening with every step, both from its proximity to its source; the lake, and the constant amassing of water that seemed to be taking place.

"Megan, I need to go." Came Rio's voice as he waded through the shallow edge of the water.

Rolling her eyes, Megan looked at him in an exasperated kind of shock. "You only went a couple of hours ago!"

Rio smiled sheepishly, and gestured around them. "Running water. It has an affect on me."

Megan couldn't help but grin, but glared at him at the same time, undoubtedly making for a rather odd expression. "Alright, but make it quick, Mister!" she ordered with a laugh.

Grinning like a four year old, Rio gave Megan a salute and splashed off behind a rock to do his business.

Sighing, Megan pointedly looked the other way, checking through the contents of her bag in her own, special, obsessive compulsive way. They never had any trouble finding food, not with Rio's traps, and water was plentiful, almost too much so. She was curious about the water…it was interesting, some of it was salty, but some of it was fresh, often in the same part of a stream, defying the usual separation between the two type of water.

"Megan!" Rio's voice was frantic, and she could hear the pain clouding its desperate tone.

Her gut wrenching, Megan froze for a moment. What if he was being attacked? She would be running straight into the trap. Surely she would have heard anyone that came to attack though…

No, she couldn't say she would have heard anyone, if it was one person or even two quiet people. She was too busy going through their supplies.

"MEGAN!"

That was a full on bellow, full of pain and a need for her. Megan reacted before she could think, bolting towards the voice. He sounded so much like Ferrid. Skidding around the boulder with her knives at the ready, she bolted towards Rio, who was lying half in, half out of a river, trying desperately to scrabble back up the bank, while something else, something infinitely stronger, was pulling him away, down into the depths of the water. Blood was leaking out of the mangled legs in the water, and Megan gasped as she saw the cause. A dark shape was in the water…a large shape, man sized, bigger than either of them, it had the lower body of a fish, albeit a big one, but its torso, its upper half, was that of a man crossed with a fish.

His skin was deathly pale, almost translucent, and she knew he couldn't breathe out of the water. His chest was scattered with scales, and a fin rose up from his back, but his face, his pale, blank face was purely human.

No, it wasn't blank…it had an expression. Determination. It was determined to bring Rio down into the depths of the water with him, and it was strong enough to know that it had won as soon as its muscular, bescaled arms had grabbed Rio's legs. It had cold determination on its face as it slowly, methodically, pulled its captor further back into the water. Any injury done to Rio, he had made himself through his desperate escape attempts.

The mutt, for that was what it had to be, turned to look at Megan.

Her knives clattered to the floor. Its eyes were…they were….they were her father's eyes! They couldn't be! Intelligent, as present as always. Her father….

The mutt never stopped its gentle progress into the water with Rio, but cocked its head ever so slightly to the side, something, almost curiosity, filling those all too familiar eyes.

Then Rio kicked again, and it sharply turned back to him, sinking faster into the water. A broken cry wrenched out of Rio's throat as he scraped his bloodied hands through the mud, up to his chest in water. "Megan, help me!"

He spoke then, to the creature behind him. "Dad, let me go! I love you, but I'm not dying now! I don't want to go! I DON'T WANT TO GO!"

It took but a moment for Megan to see the mutt for what it really was. Everyone saw someone different. She had almost wanted to go into the water with her father when she saw him…surely Rio must have felt it too, but had now realised what that entailed…

"HELP ME! MEGAN!"

Now tears came, thick and fast, battling through the mud and blood on Rio's face, from where he had tried to stop his descent into the water with every part of his body. They weren't tears of physical pain, no, they were tears of fear, of confusion. His father…his father wanted him to come back to the underworld. No.

"DAD! PLEASE DON'T MAKE ME GO! I'LL BE GOOD!"

Megan's eyes filled with tears at the childish language such pure fear and desperation was ripping from her District Partner.

And as always, the mutt remained stoically silent, pulling him deeper and deeper down, an unstoppable force that no-one could ever win against. Rio was now up to his armpits in water.

Megan ran down to him, grabbed his arms, tried to pull, but to no avail. Almost blinded by tears, she was shocked when two wet hands clasped around her face.

Rio's hands, muddy and bloody, and wet.

His eyes held a sudden clarity amidst all of the pain, the eye of the storm of fear and confusion. "Megan. Don't let him get you to."

She shook her head numbly as he slipped further back into the water.

The pain seemed to disappear from his eyes, the confusion and the fear sinking into nothing. What was the point?

Megan could see what he was doing. Accepting his death…

The look on his face was stern, and his grip tightened on her face as the unstoppable force pulled him back to his neck. "Promise me, you won't let him get you. Promise me!"

Barely even conscious of her crying anymore, barely conscious of anything except for Rio's tender, and serious eyes, she nodded. "I promise." she whispered.

A small smile lit Rio's face, and he closed his eyes. "I'm going to hold you to that." he murmured, letting his hands fall from her face.

He slipped under the water.

Megan was too shocked to do anything but watch as the dark shapes seemed to meld into one, flowing downwards, further and further, until they ceased to exist, just another part of the darkness at the bottom of the river.

Tears tracked through the mud Rio's hands had left on Megan's face and she closed her eyes, pressing her lips together as she waited for his cannon to go off.


	27. Yates

Tristan cursed at his stupid mouth. "I'm sorry, Ellie, I shouldn't have mentioned Grant."

The little girl attempted to cast a pout on him, but the trembling of her lower lip betrayed her distress. Ellie was twelve. She had never been away from her family, and she had never, ever been away from her brother. Tristan was glad to have been adopted as a kind of older brother to her, and he certainly felt like one. It was a natural role for him, having looked after Lena like that their entire life. Lena…he hoped she was ok…

"I'm fine, Tristan. I'm not a baby; I can go without my big brother for a week." she grumbled, marching ahead to hide her tears. As if to prove that she could take care of herself, Ellie grabbed a plant and shoved it in her mouth.

Tristan sighed. He was terrible at identifying plants, and Ellie knew it. She had had to deal with that part of their arena experience. "Really? I miss him. A lot."

That stopped her in her tracks. Ellie spun and stared at Tristan, who was gently running his hands over the trunk of the tree Ellie had just plucked leaves from. The shock in her expression was evident, and confusion painted her face. "What?" she spluttered.

Tristan turned to her and smiled slightly. "I miss Grant. He's my best friend, and I might never see him again. Of course I miss him."

Ellie's face slowly sobred, her little lips falling into a surprised, 'o'.

Taking his cue, Tristan walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her. "It's ok to miss people, Ellie, especially here…" Really, what he had said was nothing, but it had obviously affected her.

Her lip wobbled precariously, but her gaze was fixed on him.

"It's ok, baby sister." Tristan crooned softly.

That got her. Ellie let loose with soft sobs, burying her head into his chest.

Gently stroking her hair, Tristan remembered doing much the same for Lena not too long ago.

She really was his little sister.

Dawtin quietly hissed in pain as his back throbbed. Water had leaked in and pooled around his prone body, no matter how far Alissa moved him from the front of the cave. She was crouched in the ankle deep water beside him, her back braced against the side of the cave and her eyes closed in sleep for the first time in days.

If he was going to do it, it would have to be now. He wasn't going to survive. He knew that. Alissa didn't. Once he was dead, she could get out of this cave before she was found. She could sleep, and not have to worry about feeding him, healing a wound that will never heal.

Dawtin sighed. He was a lot more trouble to her alive, and his pain was now unbearable. Waiting for his death to come slowly while his pain got worse and worse while she watched had become Dawtin's version of hell. He wanted to escape that terrible fate, and he loved Alissa too much to ask her to release him, so he would take matters into his own hands.

He had no choice.

The screen was full of the lovebirds from Ten, but their Mentor: Yates Fobbin was already teary eyed by their images on his own screen. He knew Dawtin and Alissa. He knew them from training them for the Games, yes, but he knew them from back home as well. He'd taught Alissa the sword, and he'd been there when Tile Rondos had yelled out just how his dad was better than Dawtin's.

The Peacekeeper was only a few paces from him. He had heard it all just as clearly as Yates. The fellow was only young and bursting to prove himself. What good news he had for the higher powers. A mass execution.

The Peacekeeper had turned tail and run to tell his superiors.

Yates had run into the house, grabbed Tile and practically thrown him out of the door. "Go and see your family, boy."

Tile had been confused, but Dawtin, who was half up off of his bed, understood all too clearly. Tile scrambled off and away and Yates had turned to Dawtin, who had already begun to cry.

As the only one that really knew of Dawtin's plight, Yates had bonded with him, and knew his mind far too well not to know exactly what he was planning on that little screen in front of him.

He was planning his own death, and the only thing stopping him was Alissa. She wouldn't understand, and she would find some way to blame herself.

Not if Yates had a say in it. Bringing a trembling hand up to the screen, he prodded the gift option and allowed his tears to flow freely.

He had been through his own Games, seen a lot of young people die in the ones that followed, but nothing he had done had been as hard as pressing that button.

He watched as on his screen, a small silver parachute flew down to Dawtin, landing in one of his hands.

The boy looked at it curiously, unwrapping first the paper and pen, and then the syringe. Immediately, he got to work, writing quickly and as neatly as possible while holding the paper above the water. Folding it in half, he tucked the note into Alissa's hand where his had once lain, and took up the syringe.

Looking up, the camera focussed on him completely.

Yates didn't need the close up.

"Thank you, Yates." he murmured, gently plunging the lethal injection into his bloodstream.

_So there you are, back from Germany and a chapter goes up immediately! We're really getting into the nitty gritty now. You guys have some devious plots to look forward to in the next couple of chapters!_


	28. Alone In The Dark

Tristan's gaze was fixed on the fish as he lay, frozen on the riverbank. Potentially the only good thing that had come from the rising of the water, was that there was now a reasonable abundance of fish in the rivers and lakes that were slowly forming. Over time, he'd gotten pretty good at finding the fish, waiting and catching them. He would have gone for a trap, if he'd known how to make one, which unfortunately, he didn't. So, instead, he lay on the riverbank, and watched, and waited, until the time was right for him to whip his hand into the water and come out with a nice big, juicy fish.

Ellie was just around the corner, gathering some plants that she was pretty sure wouldn't kill them to go with their fish. Dinner looked to be very good that night.

Grinning, Tristan saw the flash and slight disturbance in the water that meant he could claim his fishy prize. Whap!

Spinning onto his back, Tristan held the fish above him in triumph, just in time to see a knife bury itself in his chest. Blood blossomed from his chest, his shirt immediately becoming soaked in red.

Slowly, a figure detached itself from the bushes.

The little girl from Three. Why…how…?

His grip on the fish slackened, and Tristan dropped it onto the ground, where it flipped and gasped, vainly trying to make it back to the water.

The little girl moved closer, a calm smile on her face. She knelt down beside him as his chest began to explode in pain, and reached out to the fish. Grabbing hold of the slimy creature, she picked it up and observed it as it continued to fight for life.

Tristan couldn't tear his eyes away. As much as he wanted to, he was morbidly fascinated by this little girl and the fish.

Slowly, the girl began to squeeze…gently at first, but then harder, and harder, until the fish's eyes completely popped out, and it stopped flopping. A tinkling child's laugh followed the eyes as they bounced along the ground and blood seeped across her hand. Then, her gaze turned to him.

Tristan had never felt such fear. This little girl was clearly crazy. What was she going to do to him?

She couldn't pop his eyeballs out like she had with the fish, but he didn't need to stretch far to imagine what she could do to him with the knife buried in his chest.

Reaching over, she grabbed the hilt of her blade, and Tristan couldn't have moved even if he wasn't

on the brink of death. He was simply paralysed with fear.

A playful grin spread across the girl's face as she began to twist the knife, delighting in Tristan's pain as his groans mounted into screams.

"Tristan?"

At Ellie's call, the little girl growled and ripped her knife out of his body. One hand covered in fish blood, the other covered in his, she took off through the forest.

Pain as Tristan had never known coursed through his being, white hot and searing from his chest when the little girl pulled out that knife. Shots of pure agony lanced through his every molecule. He was vaguely aware that he had screamed, but he couldn't care less.

The only thing that distracted him from the pain was Ellie, as she skidded down beside him and took his hand. "Tristan! Tristan! No, not you…No!"

Tristan reached over with his spare hand, reaching towards his second sister. "Ellie…" he rasped.

She grabbed his hand, tears streaming down her face as an unstoppable force. "I'm here, I'm here…"

Sobs tore out of her throat without her permission, but she couldn't care less. Her entire focus was on Tristan, who was an inch away from death.

"It was that girl…from three…don't let her get you too…" Tristan gasped.

Ellie's eyebrows flew to her hairline. Genevieve? No. Genny was too sweet…too young…she was Ellie's age. Maybe she wasn't too young, then.

"She won't get me, Tristan. She won't, I promise."

Tristan seemed satisfied, nodding with as minimal movement as possible as his life blood leaked from the unhealable wound in his chest. His eyes fluttered closed as he focussed on life.

They shared a moment of silence.

"Tristan, do you remember what you told me on the train?"

A small smile graced Tristan's face and he coughed up a globule of blood. "That I wanted my life to be worth watching when it flashed before my eyes?"

For some reason, the fact that Tristan knew what she was going to ask was funny, and Ellie found herself smiling despite the situation. "Yeah."

"I thought as much." His eyes opened, and Ellie found herself unable to look away from his intense gaze. "And it was, Ellie. Thanks to you. Bye, baby sister."

"…Tristan?"

The silence was complete. No more rasping breaths on the edge of death. He had gone beyond.

"Tristan…" Ellie whispered.

Everything hit her at once. She was alone. Night was descending, and she didn't have Tristan to care for her like he always did when her fear of the dark pulled her away. She was alone. Tristan was dead. And she was alone. Alone.


	29. A Masterplan

"When the breeze picks up and the noise dies down,

Once you've danced with every girl in the town,

You lie on your back on a boat on the sea,

And you sing out your joy that you're free!"

Felix's eyebrow stretched up to meet his hairline. "A sailing song? You're not from Four!"

Alistair grinned. "How astute of you."

Felix couldn't help but to grin back. The pair had been reunited promptly after Ali's cliff jumping phase. At first Felix hadn't believed him, but after seeing the anti-grav pick up half of the forest, he could easily imagine Alistair mucking around in it. The pair was close, really great friends. Felix really wished that they had both lived in the same District back home. They had only gotten closer after Rye had left. Felix's lips tightened. Rye…He knew why Rye had left. He was too close to them. The guy wasn't used to being close to people, physically or emotionally, and the idea of eventually having to kill them, or watch them die, after killing Connor, had been too much for him. Felix understood. He'd felt the same things, but he had known he wouldn't be able to leave their alliance the moment Ali had approached him in the Training Hall.

He understood the feeling of dread that entered him every time he imagined Ali or Rye dead, and he understood the way that Connor's death haunted Rye, keeping him awake at night and making it hard for him to do even so much as close his eyes. Yes, he understood all too well.

"Listen, Ali, I'm going to go get some water, alright?"

"Do you wanna flip for it?"

"Do you have any coins?"

"We can flip a rock."

"It's alright, I'll go."

Grinning, Alistair went back to his singing.

Felix wanted to say that Ali didn't understand the weight of death, but he knew for a fact that the boy did. He had seen his father kill his mother when he was twelve and tried in vain to save his little sister when her fate had looked to be the same. Needless to say, he had failed, and run away. His father had never tried to look for him, and had eventually died in the mines three years later. Alistair had been on his own since his first Reaping. He understood the weight of death.

Sighing, Felix turned and left. It was a little way to the water, but he was thankful for it. He needed some time alone to think.

He began his trek through the forest to get to the lake. They were no longer in the main forest, but the small one closer to the bottom of the cliff. No-one else seemed to have found their little relatively safe haven, but they knew it was only a matter of time. The rising water had been tricky at first, and still was, but it was much easier to deal with now that they knew where to find fresh water in the over-flowing rivers. There was a lake, not far from where they had set up camp, and that was where the rivers all met. It was a fresh water lake, and as far as Felix knew, no-one else was using it, or at least, they hadn't seen anybody using it.

Up until now…

As Felix rounded the corner, he took in the new boundaries of the lake, and spotted the camp site. There were people set up quite well right on the edge of the water. The camp site was empty for the moment, but there was a girl sneaking around to the water's edge. She looked familiar, even from this distance. Felix's mind clicked. It was Katrina. His Basketcase District Partner. And he wasn't all too sure what she was doing, but it had something to do with his fresh water supply.

Making a split second decision, Felix ran out to the lake.

Katrina looked up and raised a blow dart to her lips.

Seeing it coming, Felix warded the dart off with a sai in his spare hand and ran to the water, closer to the girl.

Amazingly, she stopped. She just looked at him, her gaze wary, but not scared or dangerous.

Felix frowned cautiously. Diplomat time. "I've seen you. In school. You're in my chemistry class." It was true. She was a year older than him, but the school classes were based on ability, not age. This made Katrina even less dangerous as she lowered her blow dart to her side.

"What are you doing to the water?" he asked warily.

For the first time, Felix heard her speak. She had a beautiful, soft voice, like the wind in the trees. Such a pretty voice for such venomous words. "Poisoning it…" she murmured.

Felix's eyebrows flew to his hairline. "Are you sure that's such a good idea? This may be the only fresh water supply in the arena."

The girl almost smiled. "Then I suggest you fill up."

Smiling at her, Felix crouched down to the water, keeping an eye on Katrina's reflection. "Who's the target?"

Katrina watched him the same way he watched her, but gestured over her shoulder towards the camp site Felix had seen. "The Careers."

Appropriately impressed, Felix gestured for Katrina to do her thing.

He watched in reverent silence as she knelt down beside him and emptied the contents of a small bottle into the water. It turned the water murky for a moment, and then it cleared. "The whole pack?"

Katrina nodded.

Felix's eyes narrowed. "Where are they now, I wonder?"

A scream tore from the forest and made ripples run over the surface of the water.

Felix bounded to his feet. Only one person could make a scream seem like they were singing.

"Alistair!"

_Sorry it has taken me so long to update, my internet crashed. The next few chapters should be up very soon. We're getting to the exciting end of the competition!_


	30. No12

Alistair watched as Felix faded into just another part of the forest that surrounded them. "Finally, he's gone. We can have some alone time." He turned his grin onto a nearby tree. "Come on out, Lung, you great lug. I could hear you from a mile off."

Slowly, the Career pack emerged from the trees.

Lung looked venomous, and Yonni Kotchi bared her teeth at him in a snarl. "How the fuck are you still alive?"

Ali gave a bark of laughter, and feigned offense. "Oh, my dear, why would you ruin this moment with such a foul mouth?"

Shine nodded. "I actually agree with him." She threw a glare at Yonni. "There's no need for that language, and besides, he actually did quite well, evading us last time, spotting us before we came out. And he waited for his friend to leave so he wouldn't die too. That was brave." Directing a smile at Ali, she hoped he felt the praise. No-one deserved to die in this competition. That wouldn't stop her from killing them, of course. All Shine could do was offer them some light in the inescapable dark.

Tipping an imaginary hat to Shine, he moved closer to her. "Why thank you." Gesturing towards her with a thin hand, he proclaimed, "I like this one."

Satin stepped in front of Lung and sinuously cocked his head to the side. "Be that as it may, but it still leaves open the question of how you escaped. Last time we met, it ended with you jumping off a cliff."

Ali's lips pursed in confusion for a moment. "I do jump off a lot of things, but I doubt even I could survive going off the edge of a cliff…unless there's water at the bottom I suppose…" He clicked to show his theatrical light bulb moment. "Ah, or an anti-gravity field. That thing is cool, have you seen it?"

The Careers looked at each other in joint disbelief, while Ali looked somewhat longingly at the trees.

Satin saw his desperate look and held up a finger. "Don't even think about it."

"You've got nowhere to run this time." Yonni hissed as the group began to slowly converge on Alistair.

He held up a finger. "On the contrary, I do have somewhere to run, many places, in fact, but it's doubtful that I'll be able to get past you lot to get to those places." His mouth was on auto-pilot, spewing out random banter while his mind worked full pelt. What his mouth was saying was true. It _was_ doubtful that he would be able to get through the wall of Career to his escape route, but it wasn't impossible. He just needed the perfect moment…Now! Rocking back onto his hands, Alistair kicked forward, hitting a certain sensitive part of Lung's anatomy, before drawing his legs back and booting hard off the rock that had served as his perch. He flew into the air, flipping over Yonni's head as he reached for a branch-Thud!

White hot pain seared through his back as a knife embedded itself in his spine. A second later, as he hit the ground and found that his legs would no longer respond to his brain, a sword slashed down in a flash of silver from Yonni's hands and splayed his back open. Ali let out a primal scream that he was sure would be heard all over the Arena.

Footsteps crunched closer, and a second later, Alistair was rolled onto his back. Letting out a groan of pain at the contact of his back to the floor, Ali could only cry out as his body failed time and time again to respond to his brain's orders to get up, to run, to do anything. He couldn't feel his legs, and his arms were limp and broken from the fall.

Satin's booted foot still rested on Ali's chest. He smiled at Ali's sorry state, and sharply kicked his face, getting another yell of pain. "You should have died the first time, miner."

Shaking his head sadly, he stepped away. There were others to take his place.

Yonni and Lung began to relentlessly lay into the singer from Twelve, kicking and hitting with all of their considerable might. Alistair screamed and yelled, making use of the only thing his body would still let him use: his voice.

Felix tore through the forest as fast as his legs could carry him, bounding over roots and rocks and boulders until he finally heard thuds and kicks that had to be the source of the bloodcurdling screams coming from Felix's best friend. He skidded to a stop when he could finally see the whole scene through the trees. Ali was just a mangled, bloody mess at the bottom of a tree, but from his spot on the floor, in a moment of respite, he saw Felix, crouching on the ground with tears coursing down his face.

All at once, the screaming stopped, and the boy was laughing. Alistair was laughing. Loudly, painfully, and hysterically.

Immediately, Satin got to his feet. "What's so funny?" he demanded, stopping the beating with a wave of his hand.

Ali's laughing turned into coughs for a moment and when he smiled again, a glob of blood from somewhere in his throat caught on his chin, already slick with red from where his teeth had been kicked out. "I just thought you'd like to know, that while you've been busy here with me," he cut off again for some more violent coughing. "My friends have been busy blowing up your campsite."

Felix reeled backwards at the same time as Satin. How had Ali come so close to the truth?

Satin's cold rage built up and exploded immediately. He stamped down on Ali's chest so hard that Felix could hear his sternum breaking from where he was hiding, and glared at the other Careers. "Go." he ordered. They sprinted away to save their campsite.

Satin leant down and carefully pulled out his knife.

Ali was laughing again.

When Satin next spoke, his voice was deathly soft, but still torturously loud enough for Felix to hear. "I hope you enjoyed that little speech, boy, cause it's the last one you're ever going to give."

The silver flashed in the oncoming moonlight and Ali screamed his worst as the Career cut out his tongue. The very last thing that Alistair controlled of his body, his very last hope, cut clean out of his gaping, bloody mouth.

His job done, Satin calmly cleaned his knife on the grass and left.

Felix forced himself to wait until Satin had gone, counting to twenty in his head, as had been his and Ali's rule from the start.

Eight…

Ali was sobbing and choking, horrid sounds working their way around the stub of his tongue.

Twelve…

From where he was, Felix could see the blood completely covering Felix's body.

Sixteen…

He was crying, crying so hard, tears shining in the moonlight.

Twenty.

Felix was crouching next to Ali before you could blink. Close up, he looked worse than he possibly could have imagined. Blood, snot and tears all mingled in a dreadful mess on his face. Ali's arms were both twisted at impossible angles and his legs were too still for life.

Blood.

Everywhere. You could see the entire night sky reflected in the massive pool of blood from Ali's body.

As Felix neared, he could see his own horrified face marring the perfect image of the night sky.

He knew Alistair was walking the line between life and death, and so he knelt down beside him, and smiled. "That was one hell of a way to go out, Alistair. I think you planned it."

He could sense Ali's confusion.

Felix let out a sad laugh. "You died twelfth. You won the bet."

Slowly, ever so slowly, Alistair smiled with what Felix wasn't sure held enough integrity to be called a mouth. His eyes, the only things that still looked like Ali, looked up at Felix. They sparkled with the same mirth that had always filled them and their owner.

"Bye, Ali." Felix whispered.

He watched as the lights in those eyes faded and morphed into something else. There was no mistaking the eyes of a dead man.


	31. Poison

_Alright guys, I'm very sorry it's taking me so long between updates, but I tried to make up for it with this action packed chappie! Hope you enjoy it! Please R&R!_

Shine sat on a rock by the lake and watched as Satin arrived and surveyed the still very much intact campsite. He turned questioning eyes onto Shine, who smiled. "He duped us. Nothing happened here."

Satin sighed and dropped down beside her. "Bloody miner." He scowled and leant back on his elbows. "I said we should have left someone back here to guard the place."

Shine's brow furrowed, and she sought to ease the tension that Satin obviously felt. "Nothing happened…" she repeated uncertainly.

"But it could have!" Satin snapped. A second later, he pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, Shine. I know you tried to get them to let you stay back."

Smiling, Shine nodded. Satin was a serious guy, but he was rarely angry. Obviously, the anger he felt at Lung and Yonni's insistence that they all go was large enough to make him mad enough to snap at Shine.

Satin reminded Shine somewhat of her brother Orn. She was sure that under different circumstances, Satin would be an enigmatic, contented gentleman that any person would favour the company of. In the Arena, however, he was quiet and constantly brooding. He was still a gentleman, as much as you could be when you were in a fight to the death.

Sighing, Shine brought her water bottle to her mouth again.

Satin gestured for her to give him the water, but then froze as something about Shine caught his eye.

She cocked her head to the side, but Satin's gaze was drawn to her mouth, where froth was beginning to form. As he watched, her breathing began to become laboured, and her free hand went to her throat. Shine's eyes widened as she watched her hands begin to spasm violently. The tremors quickly invaded her entire body, until she was violently flailing over the floor; her eyes rolled back in her head, and foam bubbled at her mouth.

Her non-responsive hands flung the water bottle towards Satin, who dodged it and quickly moved away from the water as it spread, all the while watching Shine intently.

Boom!

There was a moment of silence after the cannon went off, as the remaining Careers stared at Shine's body as it twitched with residual spasms.

At a loud scream from Yonni, Satin looked up sharply. She flung her water bottle away with a force, but it was too late. She had drunk the water as well. As the spasms began to take control of her limbs, Lung ran forward to try and help her.

Satin's mind worked quickly.

Shine was dead.

Yonni was halfway there.

He strained his mind to see if Lung had drunken any water. He could have easily drank something while Satin was dealing with Alistair.

Silently creeping a step forward, Satin slowly unsheathed his knife. He wasn't taking any chances.

If Shine and Satin were dying, Lung was staying alive. That thug from Four was the very last person that Satin wanted to be stuck with, annoying as he was. It also quite perfectly solved the issue of how Satin was supposed to kill the boy that was twice his size, and made of muscle.

Yonni retched violently and crashed to the ground, her back arching to an impossible angle with a sickening crack. She lay still.

With perfect timing, Satin flicked his wrist, and his knife buried itself in Lung's back. He gave a dull gasp and collapsed on top of Yonni. Their cannons went off in the same instant.

Good. If everyone else still thought there was one left, Satin had an extra advantage. Grinning to himself at the stack of annoying Career corpses, he looked up at the sky, where he knew the cameras would be fixed on his face.

"You watching, Sileshia?"

Megan sat in her campsite, her eyes on the small flickering flames. Her mind was somewhere else entirely…

Her mind was back with her father, the first time she'd followed him out of the house into the field. He'd let her tail him for a little while, but she had turned a corner, and he had gone missing! He'd disappeared!

Megan had had a moment of confusion, before he appeared from behind the wall, scooped her up and thrown her up into the air, catching her in strong arms and slinging her over his shoulder to take to work like a sack of grain.

That was one of Megan's most precious memories, but it had been corrupted in a terrible way. Now, when she looked back on it, as she fell down into her dad's arms, he turned into the terrible mutt from the river, the one that had taken Rio. He transformed into something evil, holding only her father's eyes, and when Megan landed in his arms…what had once been a joyful moment of pure bliss and ecstasy was now shrouded in utter dread and fear.

Whipping her hand to her face, Megan wiped away a traitorous tear and tore her gaze from the fire.

A crack in the trees had her on full alert, her eyes penetrating the darkness for a glimpse of the intruder, her knives up and ready.

A glint of light flashed off a sword, and Megan sprang to her feet, arm poised to throw, but something stopped her.

"Wait. Ellie, right?" she asked, her knives lowering ever so slightly.

The girl took two hesitant steps forward, so they could see each other.

Megan swallowed. She knew she couldn't kill a little girl, and by the looks of it, the girl hadn't been trying to ambush her, but had only strayed too close to her campfire.

"Yeah. I don't know who you are." Ellie replied shortly, her voice still so high.

The pair of them froze in their spots as two cannon blasts boomed through the arena in quick succession. There had already been a death tonight. This night was shaping up to be spectacular.

Their gazes found each other again quickly.

Megan sighed. "Look, kid, I'm not going to offer an alliance this late in the game, but I will do you a trade." She had smelt the dead animal in Ellie's bag from a mile off, and had an abundance of water, thanks to her sponsors. Food however, was harder to come by. The animals seemed to be getting fewer and fewer as the game went on and the water rose.

Ellie looked intrigued and her sword dropped down slowly. "Alright. You got water?"

Megan lowered her knives further. "Yes. You have food?"

Instead of answering, Ellie flung over her backpack. "I'm not risking it if you wanna attack me. If you want the food, you take some out and throw the bag back."

Megan sucked in a quick breath of air. The kid was smart, but that arrangement left Megan open to any attack from the mini swordswoman. Stretching forward, she kept her eyes trained on Ellie and quick as a flash, grabbed the bag and did as she was bid. Slowly walking backwards, she retrieved two of her ample supply of water bottles and rolled them over to Ellie.

Another loud crack made them both spin, weapons raised.

In front of them, clearly in view and making no attempt to conceal herself, was Genevieve Mardell.

The petite girl with tiny, pale limbs, stood with an odd smile on her face amongst the dark trees, a blood-encrusted knife held in one miniscule hand. "Hello." she said easily.

Ellie let out an impressive roar. "You killed my best friend!" she screamed.

Megan's eyes widened, but she wasn't surprised. She had seen the heartless betrayal and murder that this girl had committed at the beginning of the games, but had let her live because it would have felt too much like killing Lizzie or Rhia. Now, however, seeing Ellie's raw pain and terrible fury, she regretted her actions. Turning a glare on Genny, she hissed, "I should have killed you when I had the chance."

Genny's gaze snapped to Megan and her head slowly cocked to the side. Her smile grew. "You have the chance now. Why don't you kill me?"

Ellie looked at her too, waiting for the answer, but Megan couldn't look away from Genny as she called her bluff. It was the same situation all over again, but as she imagined throwing a knife into the traitorous girl's heart, she couldn't help but see Lizzie's innocent face. She couldn't bring herself to do it. Shoulders sagging, she sighed and replied in a voice barely above a whisper, "I can't kill a twelve year old girl."

Genny smiled in victory, until another Ellie's voice, cold with rage, joined in.

"I can."


	32. Afterlife

Ellie's body was shaking with rage, but her hand as she brought her sword forward was as steady as it had ever been. She slowly took a step forward, glaring at the little girl, whose eyes were slowly widening.

Genny had never been attacked or challenged. She couldn't protect herself. She couldn't fight. She was going to die. She saw this fact as clearly as the sky was blue, but through her madness, it didn't matter.

Ellie took another step.

Genny smiled and beckoned her closer, spreading her arms, welcoming her in. No-one would kill her. She was going to die, but no-one would kill her. In her state of mind, that made perfect sense.

With cold, steely determination in her step, Ellie slowly gained ground on the cornered and crazy Genevieve, her sword held out, steady. She could hear Grant in her mind, scolding her for having her hand too far down the hilt of the blade, or rolling his eyes at her stubborn refusals to give up a move she had discovered herself. She missed him, so much, and she wasn't ashamed to admit it. Tristan had done that for her.

Tristan: her second older brother.

Anger coursed through Ellie's veins and she allowed it free rein, feeding her energy and speed and more determination. Her grip tightened and her pace quickened.

She would kill this crazy little girl.

She would kill her for Tristan. Each step became a reason, a memory that fuelled her tears and anger and need for revenge.

Tristan, who was silent and ever so distant.

Tristan, who seemed to have no feelings.

Tristan, who wore a macaroni necklace from his baby sister into an arena of death.

Tristan, her big brother.

Genny's gasp as the blade was driven through her heart was as petite as everything else about her.

The smile that had been fixed to her face for so long was suddenly replaced with a shocked 'o', as if she somehow hadn't expected the cold steel in her body.

Ellie watched as the knife dropped from Genny's violently shaking hand. The girl looked down at the sword in her body for a long while, before slowly turning her gaze up to Ellie, confusion and depression and utter clarity on her face. She knew what she had done. What her madness had induced.

"I'm so sorry." she whispered, the words barely forming in the silence. She looked up to the sky, as she crumpled to the ground. "I'm sorry, Daddy."

Bang!

The cannon was the only sound in the otherwise complete silence.

Ellie slowly drew her sword out of Genny's chest. With the realisation of what she had done, and the horror of Genevieve Mardell's last moments, her energy seemed to disappear and shivers coursed up and down her body.

Eyes wide, she turned to where Megan stood, sympathy streaming to her from the older girl's eyes.

"You did the right thing." she said softly.

Ellie nodded and slowly sank to the ground, confused at what to do next and finding it hard to come to grips with the fact that she had just killed someone. At that moment in time, anyone could have walked up to her, and she couldn't have made a move to defend herself.

Megan looked at Ellie and her unseeing eyes, so lost and confused. She couldn't leave her. All of her instincts were telling her to move, to run, to get away and go back into solitude.

But her heart was ordering her to stay and help this poor little girl who couldn't help herself.

For a moment, she wavered on the treeline, glancing first at the dark forest, and then at the twelve year old, and she made her decision.

Walking over with a determined stride, Megan sat herself beside Ellie, put an arm around her shoulder and turned her sharp eyes around for enemies. Ellie turned into her shoulder, shivering and shell shocked, until she finally began to cry.

Satin ran his thumb along the edge of his knife as he wandered out of the forest. That had been his habit since he first started knife fighting, an immeasurable amount of time ago.

The forest edge had led him around to the hills at the bottom of the cliff that Alistair had jumped off. The terrain was rocky and the boulders stood like twisted bodies, hunched and deformed. He walked through the stone sentinels, remembering the path he had taken last time.

The Pack had herded the District Ten tributes through this rocky maze a while ago. Satin had been at the head of the pack, and it was because of his strategically placed explosions that a good section of the mountain had been brought down over the cave. There had been no canons at the time, but there was no way they could have escaped. Even if they hadn't been smashed by the avalanche, the only entrance and exit to the cave had been blocked off, so they'd had to have dug their way out.

Satin was methodical at best. Chances were, one of them had survived, and even if they hadn't, it was a good camping spot. In hunting down the rest of the tributes, the cave had been the best place to start.

And so, he retraced his path through the twisted boulders, stepping lightly and running his thumb along the edge of his knife. At long last, the cave came into view. It was half underwater, the constantly rising water now present even in this high area.

He stood and surveyed the cave from a few metres away. The entrance had indeed been blocked, but the stack of rocks outside implied that someone had lived to move them. They had dammed up a section of the cave with the rocks to keep it dry. Satin nodded appreciatively. Good idea.

As he watched, he heard movement from inside. Someone had noticed his presence. Only question now, was who?

The girl stepped out of the cave, her previously strong, determined gaze flawed by red, swollen eyes and a thoroughly horrified expression.

Not horrified by him, Satin realised. He wracked his brain for a moment. Ah, of course. The boy. They had gotten on particularly well, he remembered.

A wave of pity rushed through Satin. He could imagine what he would feel if Sagathy was taken away from him.

Pity, but no guilt. If he was to avoid that very same feeling, he had to kill them all. He couldn't afford guilt.

"Damming the cave with rocks, very resourceful." he commented breezily, a small smile on his face.

Her horrified face didn't even flinch as Satin's knife buried into her heart.

As she sank to the ground, it relaxed, and she seemed…not relieved…but content.

Her death was not enjoyed, but welcome.

Slowly, Satin approached the corpse as it stilled and retrieved his knife from her chest. A sad smile crossed his lips. He had killed both of the lovers. He only hoped that they found each other again in the afterlife.


	33. The Flood

Marina's gaze rested ahead of her as she observed the water rising. It had had a sudden burst of action-obviously the Gamemakers were trying to speed it up a bit, and most of the Arena was unaccessible. The forest was underwater to the edges, the swamp rising to cut everything off that way. Basically all that was left was that area in the middle where they had all started out. The cornucopia.

The space was actually reasonably large, about the size of a football field, but Marina was pretty sure she had found her safe haven for at least the next part of the game. Water was everywhere, but that was hardly a bad thing for a district four tribute. Marina now held the advantage, and she wasn't planning on letting it go.

Felix was more than sure that the only reason he was still alive was the fact that he had seen Satin following him earlier than the Career had thought. His second ascent of the cliff was going much better than the first, but this time, there was no Alistair to save his skin.

Alistair…

Felix tightened his jaw. He should have known better than to make friends with anyone in the Arena when he knew there was no way for them both to get out alive. And Satin…Satin had killed him, in the most horrifying way. He had cut out his _tongue_.

The bastard was sick, there was nothing else to it.

Pushing his legs for an extra burst of speed, Felix ran to the top of the cliff. He just had to make it to the top, preferably before Satin killed him. Being dead before he reached the clifftop would kind of defeat the purpose of the mad dash.

Rye sat with his head in his hands, weakly fighting off the depression that was pulling him down into the depths of darkness within him.

He had been doing the same for the last couple of days, ignoring his need for food and drink, only moving when his the water came far too close for comfort. Sure enough, he'd been getting pressed closer and closer into the middle of the Arena by the ever rising water, and he now sat on the edge of what had once been the marshland, staring into the Cornucopia.

How he'd managed to stay alive for the last however long, he did not know. If someone had come up to kill him, he'd have made no move to defend himself.

He deserved death, he knew that. And he wanted it. He had _killed_ someone. Practically split their body in half with his axe.

And then, he had made the mistake of making friends. And then he'd left them to die. He knew Alistair was dead. If he'd have been there, he could have defended him, saved him, but no, he had _left._

It was his fault Alistair was dead.

And, if that wasn't enough, his death was better than letting the others die. He had only his father to go back to if he won, and as much as that meant to him, Rye couldn't bring himself to kill again for it. All of the other tributes had something to go back to. All of them, and they were all equally deserving. If Rye was willing to die, then he should. If he died, he would see his mother. If he died, one of the others would get to see theirs. It was a good deal all round.

Rye nodded. He was going to die.

Megan trudged along the waterline, trying to keep as far away from other people as she could, but it was obvious that the Gamemakers were forcing them together. Eventually, she would have to go and fight or die.

Unless she could avoid people until everyone else died, of course, but that was a slim chance, as much as she hated to admit it.

Something lapped up against Megan's foot. She stopped and looked down. Water.

It was getting closer. The next ripple hit her ankle, and the next her shin.

Immediately, she began to run backwards, into the middle, just in time to see the head high wave of water that was crashing through trees to chase her.

Swearing violently, she spun around and sprinted as fast as she could, although she knew that eventually the water would catch her. On the other side of the Cornucopia, there were very tall trees, trees high enough to keep her away from the water, so she aimed for them.

She could hear the water behind her, catching up, rushing and pooling and pouring through the Arena. She felt it lap against her legs with every other step, getting higher every time.

The trees were close now, she could just see them, the closest one behind a stack of rocks.

Thinking of apples, Megan clambered up over the rocks and leapt for the lowest branch, holding on for dear life. The water rushed under her and she wrenched herself up onto the branch and lay there, exhausted, until she heard the scream.

The bloodcurdling scream.

Satin stopped his pursuit of Felix for just a moment to stare over the Cornucopia as the area filled with water.

A scream, high pitched and filled with pure terror echoed around the Arena, bouncing off of the cliff face and catching the attention of every tribute.

Satin zeroed in on the source, a tree on the edge of the forest. He strained his mind to think of who she was. He hadn't seen her all games, but he recognised her from the pre-games. She was Felix's district partner. Or at least she had been.

There were creatures in the water. Giant fish, like sharks, but faster and more humanoid. They had to be mutts.

Katrina's scream had come when the first of the mutts had dragged her from the tree. Well, most of her. She had held on, but the mutt had ripped her down, her arms remaining on the branch she had been clinging to for a moment before following her into the water.

Once she hit the water, she had no hope.

The water turned red, and that was the end of Katrina Oakson.

Satin quickly thought about the implications. The entire Arena was now flooded. The water was infested by mutts and definitely no longer good to drink.

There were only a few of them left, and the only safe places were around the Cornucopia.

However this went down, the games were going to end very soon.


	34. Revenge

Felix froze on the spot, paralysed by shock and horror. Katrina...The poor girl.

She hadn't been killed; she'd been destroyed. All that remained of his district partner were the clouds of blood in the water, morbidly beautiful as they danced in the currents.

The mutts that had eaten her were swimming in lazy circles around the flooded arena as the water continued to rise, inch by inch.

"Well, that was quite a development, wasn't it?"

Felix jumped and spun around, brought out of his shock by Satin's smooth voice. "Indeed it was…" he replied cautiously. He knew only one of them was coming down off this cliff. An idea sparked in Felix's mind.

With a confident smirk, Satin stepped forward. "Where are you going to run to now?" he murmured.

Felix brought his arms around his stomach, hugging himself. He didn't want to die.

Satin whipped out his knives, spinning them easily in his hand. With a flick of his wrist, he sent them flying at Felix's head as he took the final steps to close the distance between them.

Arms swishing out from his sides, Felix's sai seemed to blur with speed as he knocked one of the knives out of the air. It flew over the cliff, and in Satin's moment of shock, Felix thrust forward with both of his weapons, forcing them deep into the Career's chest.

Slowly, he turned them around so Satin was scrabbling over the edge of the cliff. He was still alive, gasping and sputtering as his blood dripped from the fatal wounds in his body.

Felix's eyes were hard as he stared at the nearly dead boy. "I didn't think I could kill in this competition, not after how close I came last time, but unfortunately for you," He swallowed back the emotion so his voice came out very deep and cold. "You cut out my best friend's tongue."

Satin's eyes widened and he gurgled, but nothing could save him as Felix threw him off of his sai and over the edge of the cliff.

Only one of them was going down off the cliff, and it wasn't Felix.

Felix stood and watched his descent, all the way to the splash in the water, where the mutts were immediately upon him. "That was for you, Ali…" he whispered, before stumbling back from the cliff edge, putting a hand on his thigh, where Satin's second knife had hit him. He sat on the dirty floor, watching as his blood mingled with Satin's on his palm, before sighing and ripping off a strip of cloth from his shirt to wrap it up as he waited for the others to find him.

They would come to him, he knew that. The arena was flooded and the cliff was the only place that would be safe once the water had risen. And so, Felix settled down to wait. Waiting for what, he wasn't sure, but he hoped it wasn't death.

Rye stared out over the arena. In the moments after Katrina's death, there had been nothing but stillness and silence as everyone absorbed the new situation. He had seen Megan's mad dash across the arena and could still see her at the very top of a high tree. Marina was on a tall rock, where the water seemed lowest. On the cliff, there were two figures. He didn't know who one of them was, but for a moment before they both became indistinguishable again, he recognised the silhouette of Felix.

Guilt speared through his gut. He was sure that the pair's encounter would not be friendly. He should never have abandoned Felix like that.

A cry caught his attention over to the side. There was a little girl that he didn't remember the name of, but she was falling into the water. The branch she was holding onto was breaking and she was terrified. She was close to Rye, very close. He had moved around to the forest side of the arena as it had flooded, and now he could see her just a few metres away. He knew he had to save her.

He stared down at the water that filled the few metres he had to go to reach her. Water…he'd never had a problem with rain, or drinking water, but he was simply scared to death of the idea of drowning. Water covering his head, spilling into his ears and eyes and nose and mouth, filling his lungs and pulling him down to die in the dark…no, he couldn't deal with water.

The other problem was that the mutts would eat him as soon as he got to the water. Maybe, if he was a fast swimmer, or even just able to swim, he could get to her without being eaten, but the chances of his suicide run actually helping her were slim if the mutts ate him first.

The sun hit his eyes, glinting off flashing silver from the cliff top. All you could see was the glare from the blades.

And then the body fell off the edge.

Rye was sure that every tribute still alive was watching as the body plummeted into the water. He didn't have time to think about whether it was Felix that had been pushed as he leapt into the water. The mutts were heading towards the tribute on the other side of the arena. If he was going to get that kid to safety, this was his chance.

His leap got him most of the distance, and he could reach the floor with his tip toes, so he made his slow progress over to the little girl, who was watching him with wide eyes. The bottom was a lot lower down there, so he wrapped his legs around the part of the tree that was underwater.

He reached up. "Step on my hands and jump up." he ordered, his blue eyes drilling into hers. "Do it, kid."

She stared at him for a moment, but nodded and obeyed, grabbing onto a higher branch, pulling herself up.

The pressure on Rye's hands had pushed him down and he lost his footing. He could feel his feet scrabbling against the bark of the trunk of the tree, but he was too far out and he couldn't reach the bottom. He was sinking.

When Ellie turned around to find her saviour, he was already gone from sight.

Rye felt his nightmares turn to reality, but oddly, he wasn't scared. He felt…content. He would die for a reason. His death was honourable and his life worth living. Soon enough, his mother would come to take him on to the next plane.

Feeling relaxation lighten his limbs, he smiled and closed his eyes.


	35. Dignity

As Megan trudged up the hill, she tried desperately to forget the image of Katrina's death. The girl had been odd, for sure, but she wasn't a bad kid. No-one deserved to die like that.

Sighing, she looked up at the cliff top she was heading for.

The water hadn't stopped rising, and already, it had swallowed most of the Arena. At the rate it was going, within a day, the only safe place would be the top of that cliff. Safe…

Well, it would be safe from the water, at least. With four of them heading up there, it was going to be another bloodbath.

Shaking her head, Megan glanced down at the water that was already pooling around her ankles. Ankle deep was ok, the mutts couldn't get into ankle deep water. Up ahead, she saw that the path to the clifftop was underwater, but the tops of what would have been tall boulders jutted out of the top. They were fairly close, and Megan could see a potential path to the where the path came back again if she leapt from boulder-top to boulder-top.

Taking a deep breath, she secured her knives and backed up for the first and largest leap. She ran, picking up speed and jumped as soon as her feet hit the edge. As she flew through the air, she held her breath, just waiting for a mutt to come and grab her mid-leap. It never came and she safely landed on the boulder.

Letting out her breath, she scanned the path ahead. The boulders were close enough to do a little bit of a jump from one to the other, so she started across, always waiting for a mutt to come and grab her. Or worse, one of the mutts that had killed Rio…if her dead father appeared again, she wouldn't be able to resist…

Shuddering, she continued on.

The spear that arced through the air and stabbed her through the heart was the very last thing she expected.

Marina bobbed in the water for a moment after launching her spear. Her aim was true. Megan was dead before she hit the water.

Swimming forward with powerful strokes, Marina tried not to see the girl's body as she pulled the spear from her body. She couldn't afford to lose the spear.

She had put up nets around the area to keep mutts out, and now she tumbled Megan's body over the edge for the mutts, keeping her face blank. She knew the eyes of the Capitol would be on her and at this vital point in the Games, she couldn't afford to be taken as weak.

Slinking backwards, she pulled herself up onto a boulder-top and stared for a moment at her spear. Her sponsors had sent her this almost as soon as Katrina had died. Obviously a trident was too expensive at this stage, but she could wreak more than enough damage with a spear. Marina frowned. She didn't want to be wreaking damage on any of these people, but she had to if she was ever going to get home.

Taking a deep breath in, she stood up, looking towards the cliff top. The water was rising again, lapping against her feet. The cliff top was the only place to go. She supposed she could wait until whoever was up there killed each other, but somehow she knew that that wasn't going to work. She needed to go home. She had to get this over with as soon as possible. However it was going to turn out, with her alive or dead, she wasn't participating in these games any longer than absolutely necessary.

Taking a moment to mourn Megan, she abandoned her nets and started up the cliff.

It was time to end this.

Ellie frowned at the boy lying by himself on the clifftop. He seemed quite calm, despite the blood slowly leaking out of the knife stuck in his thigh. He smiled.

"Why hello there." He slowly sat up, stretching as he looked over at her. "You and me, hey?"

Ellie didn't move from where she was. He seemed really nice, but she wasn't going to push her luck. She was pretty sure she could kill him if it came to a fight. He _did_ have a knife in his thigh after all.

She gestured towards the other side of the cliff. "There's another girl coming up the other way. I saw her before."

The boy sighed. "Three of us left…" He looked over, seeing Ellie's torn state. She didn't know whether to try and kill him or to run away, or what to do. He smiled. "I'm not going to try and kill you. I'm all homocided out."

Ellie couldn't help but smile, but she still didn't move. "You're Felix, right?"

He nodded. "Sorry, I don't remember you."

"I'm Ellie. I'm from 8." she replied, sitting on the ground near the edge of the cliff, facing Felix.

Felix's eyes lit up with recognition. "Oh yeah, I do remember you!" His face fell. "You were the one with the brother. Your district partner was his best friend, right?"

Ellie fought back the tears that were threatening to spill out of her eyes. "Yeah, he was."

"I'm sorry."

Trying for a grin, Ellie failed rather miserably. "Who was your partner?"

Felix grimaced, staring out over at the flooded Arena. "It was Katrina-the one that got eaten by the mutts…"

Ellie's eyes widened. "Did you know her?" she whispered eventually.

Felix shook his head. "She wasn't really that social…I'm sorry, this is a really odd question, but do you happen to know what happened to Rye Sutherland? He was one of my allies, but we lost track of one another."

Ellie wracked her brains, trying to remember the name.

"Buff, kinda tall, blonde hair? He tied it back with this black ribbon, I think it was his mum's or something…Ring any bells?"

Ellie gasped, her mind reeling back to earlier that very day when a total stranger had saved her life. "He drowned." she whispered, then immediately regretted it upon seeing Felix's face. "He drowned saving my life! I don't think he could swim, but he kind of waded over and helped me up a tree. He must have lost his footing or something, but when I turned around, he was already under…"

Strangely, Felix smiled. "Thank you, Ellie." He looked down and gently fingered the knife in his thigh. "Good on you, Rye." he whispered to himself.

No-one noticed the floating rocks until Ellie had been caught up in the air.

Felix leapt to his feet and yelled out in pain as the movement jarred the knife in his thigh. He grimaced and reached out to Ellie. "Ellie, no!"

The anti-gravity field might have been a saviour early on in the Games, but now, when the whole Arena was flooded and infested with mutts, wherever she got dropped, she would die.

Ellie knew this, but there was nothing she could do as she was picked up and pulled over the edge of the cliff. She hovered in the air, so very far above the water, and too far away to be saved.

Terror filled her and she screamed and screamed until Felix was weeping in desperation, crawling over to the cliff face. He was far too late. It had been too late to save her the second the anti-gravity field had picked her up.

Ellie was completely out of control, terror filling her veins and making her shake as the mutts began circling in the water below. She locked eyes with Felix, and saw that he had pulled out one of his odd, fork-like weapons.

Immediately, she knew what he was going to do, and for some reason, she calmed down. The Capitol wasn't going to kill her. The Gamemaker's trap wasn't going to be the end of her, and the mutts wouldn't have the pleasure of taking her life.

Felix shook, but he blinked the tears out of his eyes to clear his vision. He needed to make this shot. He wanted to be remembered as the one who had avenged Ali and the one that had saved a little girl her dignity.

Ellie wanted him to do it. He could see it when she calmed, the terror slowly leaving her when she saw his plan.

She nodded.

Taking a deep, shuddering breath, Felix nodded and she shut her eyes, waiting for the end.


	36. The Survivor

Felix's arm snapped forward and back as quickly as it ever had, sending the sai sailing through the air to lodge itself in Ellie's throat. He let out the breath he'd been holding and ripped his eyes away.

Marina watched as Ellie sagged into the anti-gravity field and drifted out across the arena. She watched until the hovercraft came to snag her from the air. She looked peaceful.

She waited until the hovercraft had left her sight before she turned to Felix.

"You knew I was here. Why would throw away your weapon?"

The boy managed an easy smile and shrugged. "She deserved her dignity. Besides, I've got another one."

Marina's spear tip rested on the ground as she stared at the boy sprawled on the ground. She knew exactly what he meant. She would have done the same herself. She gestured to the knife in his thigh. "Who did that?"

Felix's face grew hard. "Satin. I killed him."

Marina nodded, unsure of what to do. Felix had another sai, but he was in no condition to use it. He couldn't win against her when he couldn't even stand up.

Smiling sadly, he spoke in a voice that told her that he was simply stating facts. "You're going to kill me, Four. You're going to go back to your District and live in a giant house. You're going to be glad to see whatever family and friends you have, and I am going to die."

Marina's eyes widened, but Felix wasn't done yet. "So, first step of that, kill me. And make it snappy."

Tears flooded her eyes at Felix's utter courage and selflessness, but she still managed a grin. "If you insist." she murmured.

Felix grinned back. "I do. Go and live your life, Marina."

"Thank you…" she whispered, before launching her spear with all of her might into Felix's heart, being sure to kill him cleanly.

Immediately, she fell to her knees.

She had won.

She was going home…

The canon banged, piercing the utter silence. "This year's winner, Marina Arden!"

Tears began flooding down her face at the utter shock of it. She was going home. She was a victor.

Her eyes caught on Felix's body as the hovercraft neared. It was thanks to him. She quickly crawled over and searched through his pockets until she found his token-a pair of panpipes.

She would never forget him, or any of the others that saved or helped her.

Learoy briefly took over her vision and she smiled. "Thank you Hopalong."

She sat by Felix's body until the hovercraft came to pick them both up.

She had won.

She was going home.

_So, what do you think? It took me a very long time to decide in a winner, believe me. Congrats, GlimmerIcewood!_


End file.
